Pick of the week

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.

3y ago

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.

3y ago

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.

3y ago

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.

3y ago

The journey towards fighting corruption

Debates on any global index and ranking where a country does not perform well are common almost everywhere.

3y ago

Land grab and resistance in the Chimbuk hills

The Mro community of the Chimbuk hills is passing days in great uncertainty.

3y ago

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.

4y ago

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.

4y ago

Has anything changed after Nusrat?

The horrific murder of Nusrat Jahan Rafi, a student of Sonagazi Islamia Senior Fazil Madrasa in Feni, had caused a massive outcry from the public and intensive media coverage.

5y ago

A Fire Next Door

Before the amber of the last one turn to ashes and forgotten memories, a new flame leaps up in another neighbourhood of the city, revealing, once again, cracks in the façade of our tilottoma.

5y ago

'We should not use groundwater for the next 15/20 years'

The depletion of groundwater table in Dhaka has made water crisis in the city acute, especially during the dry season. What are the reasons behind this?

5y ago

'Whether we win or lose, we are not going to be on their side'

"Ultimately, in the long run, whether we win or lose, we are not going to be on their side. So we might as well do what we have to do as well as we can."

5y ago

Student movements and the culture of dissent

After a long and agonising wait, we are finally going to witness the election of Dhaka University Central Students' Union (Ducsu) on March 11.

5y ago

A 'new normal'?

In its 48th year, Bangladesh faces a new existential question to ponder. What now passes as “normal”?

5y ago

No, Chawkbazar fire won't be our 'wakeup call'

Yet another tragedy has struck Bangladesh. Suddenly, everyone has woken up to the danger of chemical factories in Old Dhaka which this daily, along with other newspapers,

5y ago

Rivers need more than a legal status

Rivers are no longer just rivers bound only by the laws of nature. The High Court has recently given a verdict awarding the status of “living entities” to the country's rivers in a bid to protect them and raise awareness of their importance.

5y ago

An Urbanism for Dhaka

A city is not mere buildings, streets and spaces; it is a theatre of social actions. And it is in that theatre, according to the American urbanist Lewis Mumford, that “man's more purposive activities…work out, through conflicting cooperative

5y ago

The sins of our daughters

Who among us, if we were parents of a daughter, would not want to protect her from the perils of our world? Who among us does not

5y ago