Pick of the week
Brazen Violations, Bizarre Charges
It was quite a sight. Viewers of television channels and readers of the dailies that carried the images of incarcerated journalist Rozina Islam were baffled at the scale of security measures taken by the state.
Your land is my land: Environmental injustice in Bandarban
Land is the closest thing that we know. We cultivate it, build on it, transform it to meet our needs, commercialise it to maximise economic gain, and derive our identities from its widely varying geographic characters.
The myth of martial race: Seared into a schoolboy's memory!
The years 1968-1969, were a tumultuous period in the political history of the state of Pakistan. My father a Bengali civil servant from East Pakistan, was an official in the then central government in Islamabad.
Hefajat’s Mayhem / Commentary by Mahfuz Anam: A wake-up call for AL, for us all
The ostensible reason for the recent protests was Indian PM Narendra Modi’s latest visit. The real reason was to signal that Hefajat-e-Islam (HI) under its new leadership was not the same party as it was under its former chief Shah Ahmad Shafi and his immediate followers and to announce that HI was ready to emerge as a new political force under the guise of protecting the majority faith.
The journey towards fighting corruption
Debates on any global index and ranking where a country does not perform well are common almost everywhere.
Land grab and resistance in the Chimbuk hills
The Mro community of the Chimbuk hills is passing days in great uncertainty.
The burning man, and our national addiction to violence
Barely a month had passed since one of us wrote about rape, scopophilia and collective rage, and barely a day since we began an intergenerational dialogue on gender, rage and violence, full of hope at the emergence of passionate and resourceful young allies, when the world dutifully punched back.
Contra capital punishment even in this ‘rapedemic’
The demand was predictable. Given the outrage that has been generated by the vicious acts of assault and dehumanisation that have been inflicted on women over some time, it even appears justifiable.
After 30 years of autocracy’s demise, democracy still remains a distant dream
Article by Mahfuz Anam on the International Day of Democracy
PM’s ‘martial law’ comment reflects people’s deeply held belief
The blunt statement on September 7 of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a virtual meeting with the Armed Forces Selection Board—that “we should exclude Martial Law from military lexicon”—was both surprising and refreshing.
Women’s access to stimulus packages and post Covid-19 gender equality
All crises—natural disasters, wars, pandemics—affect different sections of people in different ways. Like any other crisis, Covid-19 has differing impacts on society.
The seemingly endless road to Palestinian sovereignty
If empty statements could produce peace, the new Israel-UAE deal, brokered by US President Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, would be the beginning of the end of hostilities in the Middle East.
Deadly encounters
In a rare instance in the long and not-so-glorious history of extra-judicial killings in Bangladesh, justice, it appears, is on its way to being served for the murder of Major (retd) Rashed Sinha.
If it isn’t crossfire, what is it?
We are heartened by reassurances from the chiefs of the Army and the police that there are no misunderstandings between the two agencies during a
The Art of Being Tajuddin Ahmad
Nearly half a century after the 1971 War of Liberation, it is perhaps difficult to produce or come across startlingly original ideas about Tajuddin Ahmad.
The “Living Eagle” who beat the heavy odds!
He departed rather unsung, his glorious past recalled in this country by only a few of his friends and admirers, limited to Facebook posts mainly.
‘We have to strongly assert our rights now’
In this instalment of The Daily Star’s interview series that aims to give readers an idea of what changes to expect in a post-Covid-19 world, Dr Shahdeen Malik, advocate at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, talks to Eresh Omar Jamal about the right to freedom of speech and expression and the limiting of human rights by governments.
How can Dhaka become more resilient to future pandemics?
Cities have generally been the epicentres of the devastation caused by Covid-19, fuelling debates around the world on how to make cities more resilient against future pandemics.