This is part of an ongoing series on the life of Ohio University graduate student Tapash Deb, and other legal aliens in the USA.
It is the middle of spring in the Gregorian calendar but for Bengali people in India and Bangladesh the new year just began yesterday. April 14th is a national holiday in Bangladesh, celebrated by about 300 million people.
In the small college town of Athens, Ohio where Bangladeshi PhD student Tapash Deb lives, only a handful of people celebrated. Listen to an interview with Tapash's friend Mashur Rahman from Dhaka, Bangladesh who is earning his Bachelor's degree in marketing at Ohio University. He explains the meaning of April 14th, how it is traditionally celebrated, and how they started the new year far away from home. (All picture in the slide show were taken by Tapash Deb.)
How did you come to the USA? With which red tape did you have to deal as a legal alien? Are you on the path to U.S. citizenship? What do you miss about your own culture living in the USA? Please share your stories, questions, and comments!
2009/04/15
2009/03/12
Almost a U.S. Citizen -- But Bumps in the Road to Become a Nurse
Luiza -- Severing Ties with Romania Forever
She is not a US citizen -- yet. But the day when she is entitled to apply is coming closer: July 9, 2009. That is five years sharp after Luiza came to the United States for good as she writes in an e-mail interview. She says she already has an application, the questions [for the naturalization test], and has started studying. "Hopefully I will pass the test in July."
In her opinion citizenship is important for everyone who wants to have legitimacy in a foreign country that is also her/his adoptive one. "A [green] card that has an expiration date does not give me the feeling that I belong to USA forever." She says for her it is also important to vote and she thinks she might gain other right, which she doesn't know yet.
Luiza is still working on her dream to become registered nurse. Unfortunately, she says, she didn't pass the Nurse Entrance Test twice. "I said [in our last interview] that if I do not pass the entrance test I will become a truck driver, but I did not mean it, or let say I have changed my mind." Luiza says she is determined to finish what she thought is a "huge" endeavor.
"After I learned the second failure, I gave myself 30 days down-time to psychologically recover my non-success, and to be able to get up and start in another way almost from scratch."
2009/03/11
Bangladesh – A Woman in Power and Powerless Women?
By Stine Eckert
As Americans missed their chance to elect a woman for president for the first time in 2008, Bangladeshis elected a female prime minister past December for the fourth time. Sheik Hasina is currently one of 11 female heads of state worldwide according to the Council of Women World Leaders (Aspen Institute). Many of the 76 million women in Bangladesh are still facing discrimination, oppression and violence every day.
What is keeping Bangladeshi women from emancipation when their country is ruled by one of their own? How is their situation now? What are their most urgent needs; which rights are they fighting for?
“Women of Bangladesh are guaranteed equal rights in the constitution and other national and international laws. But in practice women in Bangladesh generally remain far from enjoying equal rights for various reasons,” writes Qumrunnessa Nazly in an e-mail interview. She is working for Ain O Salish Kendro, an organization in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, which provides legal aid to women, advocates women rights, and works with the United Nations (UN).
In sum, she says, women face discrimination in education, employment, and access to resources and services, in particular healthcare. Violence in public and private, she says, remains an everyday experience for many Bangladeshi women.
Ms. Nazly was involved in the first Universal Periodic Review of Bangladesh conducted by the United Nations Human Rights Council. On February 3, 2009 the forum met for a three-hour dialogue with Bangladeshi Secretary of State Dipu Moni, who gave a statement, responded to questions, and heard recommendations.
The legal position of women, she explains, is still ruled by religious laws when it comes to inheritance, marriage, divorce, and child custody. Religious laws are privileged over constitutional guarantees, she says, work against the interest of women. As of 1998 Muslims made up 83% of the Bangladeshi population, Hindus 16% according to the CIA World Fact Book. A Bangladeshi student in the United States, who wants to remain anonymous, says in a phone interview that the number of Hindus is currently much lower because many fled the country because of discrimination by the Muslim majority.
And when it comes to secular state law, Ms. Nazly says, “language and substance … is highly patriarchal in tone and intent and is discriminatory.” Some haven’t changed since they were introduced during colonial rule.
“Women are part of the patriarchy and they are trained by men,” writes Ayesha Banu, Chair of the Department for Women & Gender Studies at Dhaka University. “Elections don’t really follow the democratic process, inheritance plays a role,” she says. “Just because you are a woman doesn’t make you into a good woman leader.”
Ms. Nazly explains that attitudes in Bangladeshi society still stand against gender equality. What supports this situation, she says, is that very often women are not aware of their right. “Even when they are, women who depend on male protection are convinced that it’s not in their best interests to claim those rights.”
The UN Human Rights Council urged the Government of Bangladesh to reform discriminatory laws and to take a comprehensive approach to addressing violence against women. Ain o Salish Kendro raised other concerns such as the continued failure to ensure equal and effective participation of women in politics, the failure to advance the National Women’s Development Policy 2008, and to enact existing laws for preventing and punishing domestic violence effectively. The 2007 Human Rights Report on Bangladesh states that up to 50 percent of Bangladeshi women have experienced domestic violence at least once that year.
Similarly, Dr. Gitiara Nasreen, a journalism professor at Dhaka University, writes in an e-mail interview that despite the creation of a separate Ministry of Women in 1979 and formulation a National Women’s Development Policy in 1997 no specific action has followed. The Women’s Development Policy, she says, was changed again in 2004 and 2008 but “has been talked about more than it was acted upon.”
Part of the problem is the low visibility of women in media. In her 2005 report on Women and the Media for the UN Commission on the Status of Women, Dr. Nasreen writes that only 6% of Bangladeshi journalists are women. Especially in decision-making positions the relation to men were “severely unbalanced.” In Bangladeshi media, Dr. Nasreen writes, women barely appear in the news unless they are victims. Women shown in media were usually “young, decorative, and over-emotional,” mostly appeared in entertainment shows, and were seriously underrepresented as experts according to the report. Bangladeshi movies especially portrayed women as sexual objects with “submissive acceptance of physical violence.” Cruelty, Dr. Nasreen writes, was often presented as a natural expression of ‘angry’ man.
An exception might be “Sisimpur”, the Bangladeshi version of Sesame Street, which is funded by USAID, the U.S. government agency for development aid as Harvey Sernovitz of the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka writes in an e-mail interview. “Sisimpur shows women as role models and successful women in non-traditional professions for Bangladesh.”
Since 1971 the U.S. government has provided more than $5 billion to Bangladesh. “Gender equity has always been a key goal,” says Mr. Sernovitz. Currently USAID runs several programs to help women in Bangladesh including Trafficking in Person, which concentrates on raising awareness, building knowledge, and increasing prevention of human trafficking. Another one called Political Party Strengthening trains local level female leaders in campaigning, decision-making, advocacy for resources, constituency outreach, and public speaking. Another basic education program by USAID trains 1,850 preschool female teachers, Mr. Sernovitz says, women are taught language, math, and critical thinking skills to run Community Learning Circles, which educate 36,000 children each year with more than half of them girls.
Since she wrote her report on media and women four years ago, nothing has changed, Dr. Nasreen says. Women are still not entering journalism because of “dismal” law, she explains, which permits corruption, criminalization of politics and politicization of criminality, extremist militancy, and arbitrary law enforcement.
Ms. Banu and the Department for Women and Gender Studies at Dhaka University just recently celebrated International Women’s Day. She says her department is the only one of its kind in the country with 300 undergraduate and graduate students participating in 60 classes. For International Women’s Day, Ms. Banu says, they had a big rally with open-air music and a performance called “pot”. In it people create their own movie by showing pictures and describing them with dance and songs. She adds that since two years the government also has staged big programs for International Women’s Day.
“[International Women’s Day] is very, very important in Bangladesh,” writes Sazzad Hussain, Program Coordinator at Odhikar in an e-mail interview. Odhikar is one of the most well-known and leading NGOs in Bangladesh. He says March 8 is not only a universal day to stop violence against women but also a day for people to show solidarity.
Just recently, on February 12, U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh James Moriarty visited Odhikar to congratulate the organization on its selection as a runner-up for the 2008 Freedom Defenders Award of the U.S. State Department. The organization publishes monthly reports on human rights issues. For International Women’s Day it prepared a special report on violence against women. They state that between January 2008 and February 2009 over 496 women and girls were raped and 80 women and 26 children became victims of acid attacks, which are often connected to refusing marriage or sexual relations. Another 297 women became victims of dowry related violence. Odhikar suggests actual numbers are even higher because only incidents that were reported could be counted.
Laws against these crimes exist but are poorly enforced. In 2002 the Acid Control Act was passed, which forbids handling acid without license. But in the Odhikar report an acid seller of Goalnagar is cited: “You only have to pay 30 Taka [44 cents] for a pound of sulphuric acid and 40 Taka [58 cents] for a pound of nitric acid. As you have not brought any bottle, you can take this jar for 200 Taka [$2.90],” said an acid seller of Goalnagar in Tantibazar showing the Odhikar fact finders a little jar capable of containing five pounds of sulphuric acid.
Already almost 30 years ago, in 1980, the Dowry Prohibition Act made taking or giving of dowry illegal. But a Bangladeshi student in the United States says giving dowries is still a common tradition in Bangladesh. In a phone interview the student says that although dowry crimes are more common in matched marriage; it even happened in a love marriage of an acquaintance from a higher social class. The parents of the groom asked the bride’s parents for about 100,000 Taka ($1,450) as dowry. About half of the money usually gets paid before the wedding or on the wedding day, the Bangladeshi explains, the other half after the wedding; sometimes the husband of the young couple gets part of it. Asked why dowry is a tradition even in families who are not in financial need, the student answers with a Bangladeshi proverb: “Ey jogote shey tsai jar atche bhuri bhuri” – In this world the person who wants the most, is the person who already has a lot.
Ms Banu says without research she cannot say if current head of state Sheik Hasina serves as a positive role model for Bangladeshi girls. But Ms Banu says Sheik Hasina has been a leader before.
The 61-year old Sheik Hasina is the daughter of Sheik Mujibur Rahman, who led Bangladesh to independence from Pakistan in 1971, according to a biography of the Council of Women World Leaders. The biography says she is married to a scientist and studied herself at Dhaka University in the late 1960s where she was also politically active, especially when Pakistani rulers imprisoned her father. In 1975 Bangladeshi military officers assassinated her father, mother, and three brothers; Sheik Hasina went into exile for six years during which she became the leader of the Awami League, the largest political party in Bangladesh, continues the biography. In 1981 she returned to Bangladesh. Ten years later Bangladeshis held their first general election giving power to Sheik Hasina’s opponent Khaleda Zia, leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). After Ms. Zia’s term was over in 1996, Bangladeshis voted for Sheikh Hasina as prime minister. After a military backed interim government ruled Bangladesh between January 2006 and December 2008, a majority of Bangladeshis voted for the Awami League of Sheik Hasina.
When sitting the parliament has 345 members of which 300 are directly elected. The rest of 45 seats are reserved for women who got nominated by political parties. In the past general election 55 women ran for seats with 19 women winning unreserved seats.
An article of the Dhaka-based daily newspaper Daily Star of February 11, 2009 reported about a vow of women members in parliament “towards ensuring women's empowerment and to be vocal on women's rights issues in parliament.” One of the women MPs, Meher Afroz Chumki, says she would work to promote female education, raise awareness about women's rights, and implement the Women Development Policy, the newspaper reports.
Ms. Banu says one of the pressing issues for the new government should be the implementation of the National Women Development Policy. Dr. Nasreen says: “At this point, I can only hope that the present government would put this issue in its priority.” After 12 years it still needs to be passed by the parliament.
***
Photo Top of the Page: Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
(Source: Image is a work of a U.S. military or Department of Defense employee, taken or made during the course of an employee's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain. http://www.defenselink.mil/photos/newsphoto.aspx?newsphotoid=3106)
Photo Middle of Article: Dance performed by Bangladeshi artists in honor of former US President Bill Clinton during his Bangladesh tour of March 2000.
(Source: This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code. http://clinton4.nara.gov/WH/New/SouthAsia/photo_gallery/day_1/photo20.htm)
As Americans missed their chance to elect a woman for president for the first time in 2008, Bangladeshis elected a female prime minister past December for the fourth time. Sheik Hasina is currently one of 11 female heads of state worldwide according to the Council of Women World Leaders (Aspen Institute). Many of the 76 million women in Bangladesh are still facing discrimination, oppression and violence every day.
What is keeping Bangladeshi women from emancipation when their country is ruled by one of their own? How is their situation now? What are their most urgent needs; which rights are they fighting for?
“Women of Bangladesh are guaranteed equal rights in the constitution and other national and international laws. But in practice women in Bangladesh generally remain far from enjoying equal rights for various reasons,” writes Qumrunnessa Nazly in an e-mail interview. She is working for Ain O Salish Kendro, an organization in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, which provides legal aid to women, advocates women rights, and works with the United Nations (UN).
In sum, she says, women face discrimination in education, employment, and access to resources and services, in particular healthcare. Violence in public and private, she says, remains an everyday experience for many Bangladeshi women.
Ms. Nazly was involved in the first Universal Periodic Review of Bangladesh conducted by the United Nations Human Rights Council. On February 3, 2009 the forum met for a three-hour dialogue with Bangladeshi Secretary of State Dipu Moni, who gave a statement, responded to questions, and heard recommendations.
The legal position of women, she explains, is still ruled by religious laws when it comes to inheritance, marriage, divorce, and child custody. Religious laws are privileged over constitutional guarantees, she says, work against the interest of women. As of 1998 Muslims made up 83% of the Bangladeshi population, Hindus 16% according to the CIA World Fact Book. A Bangladeshi student in the United States, who wants to remain anonymous, says in a phone interview that the number of Hindus is currently much lower because many fled the country because of discrimination by the Muslim majority.
And when it comes to secular state law, Ms. Nazly says, “language and substance … is highly patriarchal in tone and intent and is discriminatory.” Some haven’t changed since they were introduced during colonial rule.
“Women are part of the patriarchy and they are trained by men,” writes Ayesha Banu, Chair of the Department for Women & Gender Studies at Dhaka University. “Elections don’t really follow the democratic process, inheritance plays a role,” she says. “Just because you are a woman doesn’t make you into a good woman leader.”
Ms. Nazly explains that attitudes in Bangladeshi society still stand against gender equality. What supports this situation, she says, is that very often women are not aware of their right. “Even when they are, women who depend on male protection are convinced that it’s not in their best interests to claim those rights.”
The UN Human Rights Council urged the Government of Bangladesh to reform discriminatory laws and to take a comprehensive approach to addressing violence against women. Ain o Salish Kendro raised other concerns such as the continued failure to ensure equal and effective participation of women in politics, the failure to advance the National Women’s Development Policy 2008, and to enact existing laws for preventing and punishing domestic violence effectively. The 2007 Human Rights Report on Bangladesh states that up to 50 percent of Bangladeshi women have experienced domestic violence at least once that year.
Similarly, Dr. Gitiara Nasreen, a journalism professor at Dhaka University, writes in an e-mail interview that despite the creation of a separate Ministry of Women in 1979 and formulation a National Women’s Development Policy in 1997 no specific action has followed. The Women’s Development Policy, she says, was changed again in 2004 and 2008 but “has been talked about more than it was acted upon.”
Part of the problem is the low visibility of women in media. In her 2005 report on Women and the Media for the UN Commission on the Status of Women, Dr. Nasreen writes that only 6% of Bangladeshi journalists are women. Especially in decision-making positions the relation to men were “severely unbalanced.” In Bangladeshi media, Dr. Nasreen writes, women barely appear in the news unless they are victims. Women shown in media were usually “young, decorative, and over-emotional,” mostly appeared in entertainment shows, and were seriously underrepresented as experts according to the report. Bangladeshi movies especially portrayed women as sexual objects with “submissive acceptance of physical violence.” Cruelty, Dr. Nasreen writes, was often presented as a natural expression of ‘angry’ man.An exception might be “Sisimpur”, the Bangladeshi version of Sesame Street, which is funded by USAID, the U.S. government agency for development aid as Harvey Sernovitz of the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka writes in an e-mail interview. “Sisimpur shows women as role models and successful women in non-traditional professions for Bangladesh.”
Since 1971 the U.S. government has provided more than $5 billion to Bangladesh. “Gender equity has always been a key goal,” says Mr. Sernovitz. Currently USAID runs several programs to help women in Bangladesh including Trafficking in Person, which concentrates on raising awareness, building knowledge, and increasing prevention of human trafficking. Another one called Political Party Strengthening trains local level female leaders in campaigning, decision-making, advocacy for resources, constituency outreach, and public speaking. Another basic education program by USAID trains 1,850 preschool female teachers, Mr. Sernovitz says, women are taught language, math, and critical thinking skills to run Community Learning Circles, which educate 36,000 children each year with more than half of them girls.
Since she wrote her report on media and women four years ago, nothing has changed, Dr. Nasreen says. Women are still not entering journalism because of “dismal” law, she explains, which permits corruption, criminalization of politics and politicization of criminality, extremist militancy, and arbitrary law enforcement.
Ms. Banu and the Department for Women and Gender Studies at Dhaka University just recently celebrated International Women’s Day. She says her department is the only one of its kind in the country with 300 undergraduate and graduate students participating in 60 classes. For International Women’s Day, Ms. Banu says, they had a big rally with open-air music and a performance called “pot”. In it people create their own movie by showing pictures and describing them with dance and songs. She adds that since two years the government also has staged big programs for International Women’s Day.
“[International Women’s Day] is very, very important in Bangladesh,” writes Sazzad Hussain, Program Coordinator at Odhikar in an e-mail interview. Odhikar is one of the most well-known and leading NGOs in Bangladesh. He says March 8 is not only a universal day to stop violence against women but also a day for people to show solidarity.
Just recently, on February 12, U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh James Moriarty visited Odhikar to congratulate the organization on its selection as a runner-up for the 2008 Freedom Defenders Award of the U.S. State Department. The organization publishes monthly reports on human rights issues. For International Women’s Day it prepared a special report on violence against women. They state that between January 2008 and February 2009 over 496 women and girls were raped and 80 women and 26 children became victims of acid attacks, which are often connected to refusing marriage or sexual relations. Another 297 women became victims of dowry related violence. Odhikar suggests actual numbers are even higher because only incidents that were reported could be counted.
Laws against these crimes exist but are poorly enforced. In 2002 the Acid Control Act was passed, which forbids handling acid without license. But in the Odhikar report an acid seller of Goalnagar is cited: “You only have to pay 30 Taka [44 cents] for a pound of sulphuric acid and 40 Taka [58 cents] for a pound of nitric acid. As you have not brought any bottle, you can take this jar for 200 Taka [$2.90],” said an acid seller of Goalnagar in Tantibazar showing the Odhikar fact finders a little jar capable of containing five pounds of sulphuric acid.
Already almost 30 years ago, in 1980, the Dowry Prohibition Act made taking or giving of dowry illegal. But a Bangladeshi student in the United States says giving dowries is still a common tradition in Bangladesh. In a phone interview the student says that although dowry crimes are more common in matched marriage; it even happened in a love marriage of an acquaintance from a higher social class. The parents of the groom asked the bride’s parents for about 100,000 Taka ($1,450) as dowry. About half of the money usually gets paid before the wedding or on the wedding day, the Bangladeshi explains, the other half after the wedding; sometimes the husband of the young couple gets part of it. Asked why dowry is a tradition even in families who are not in financial need, the student answers with a Bangladeshi proverb: “Ey jogote shey tsai jar atche bhuri bhuri” – In this world the person who wants the most, is the person who already has a lot.
Ms Banu says without research she cannot say if current head of state Sheik Hasina serves as a positive role model for Bangladeshi girls. But Ms Banu says Sheik Hasina has been a leader before.
The 61-year old Sheik Hasina is the daughter of Sheik Mujibur Rahman, who led Bangladesh to independence from Pakistan in 1971, according to a biography of the Council of Women World Leaders. The biography says she is married to a scientist and studied herself at Dhaka University in the late 1960s where she was also politically active, especially when Pakistani rulers imprisoned her father. In 1975 Bangladeshi military officers assassinated her father, mother, and three brothers; Sheik Hasina went into exile for six years during which she became the leader of the Awami League, the largest political party in Bangladesh, continues the biography. In 1981 she returned to Bangladesh. Ten years later Bangladeshis held their first general election giving power to Sheik Hasina’s opponent Khaleda Zia, leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). After Ms. Zia’s term was over in 1996, Bangladeshis voted for Sheikh Hasina as prime minister. After a military backed interim government ruled Bangladesh between January 2006 and December 2008, a majority of Bangladeshis voted for the Awami League of Sheik Hasina.
When sitting the parliament has 345 members of which 300 are directly elected. The rest of 45 seats are reserved for women who got nominated by political parties. In the past general election 55 women ran for seats with 19 women winning unreserved seats.
An article of the Dhaka-based daily newspaper Daily Star of February 11, 2009 reported about a vow of women members in parliament “towards ensuring women's empowerment and to be vocal on women's rights issues in parliament.” One of the women MPs, Meher Afroz Chumki, says she would work to promote female education, raise awareness about women's rights, and implement the Women Development Policy, the newspaper reports.
Ms. Banu says one of the pressing issues for the new government should be the implementation of the National Women Development Policy. Dr. Nasreen says: “At this point, I can only hope that the present government would put this issue in its priority.” After 12 years it still needs to be passed by the parliament.
***
Photo Top of the Page: Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
(Source: Image is a work of a U.S. military or Department of Defense employee, taken or made during the course of an employee's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain. http://www.defenselink.mil/photos/newsphoto.aspx?newsphotoid=3106)
Photo Middle of Article: Dance performed by Bangladeshi artists in honor of former US President Bill Clinton during his Bangladesh tour of March 2000.
(Source: This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code. http://clinton4.nara.gov/WH/New/SouthAsia/photo_gallery/day_1/photo20.htm)
2009/02/06
Need to Change
-- Bangladesh’s Election and the Hope and Concerns of Its People
by Stine Eckert
Change. That was not only the buzzword for the recent U.S. election and President Barack Obama, but also for Sheik Hasina, the president of the Awami League (AL) party in Bangladesh. Just as in the United States, the promise of change brought an overwhelming victory in Bangledesh’s general election on December 29, 2008. The AL party-led alliance won an absolute majority by taking 258 of 294 parliamentary seats against its main opponent, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Before, a quasi-military government ran the country during a state of emergency. During these 23 months, citizens' fundamental rights were suspended. For Bangladeshis the first general election in seven years was a breakthrough in returning to democracy; 70% participated.
What hopes and concerns harbor Bangladeshis for the promised changes of the new government? – An unemployed biologist, environmental analyst, high school student, human rights activist, journalist, and university administrator answer.
No proper democracy yet
“It is true that Bangladesh is yet to get the proper democracy, but we are in the process,” writes Muhammad Aminul Islam, senior staff correspondent at the Dhaka-based daily newspaper New Age in an e-mail interview. But he warns that it is yet too early to judge the new government. “Absolute power means absolute corruption,” he says. “I am concerned whether this government can control its members.” He is bruised by the past. Mr. Islam says that between 2001 and 2006 the BNP-led alliance enjoyed a similar majority but crushed the people’s hopes with “unabated irregularities by the ruling party men.” Violence after the recent election by AL rulers and its student wing, he says, have brought back the fear that this government might be a déjà-vu of the BNP rule. His hopes lie with the young and fresh but inexperienced ministers, he says, with whose help the AL administration wants to tackle corruption, reduce inflation, and create a hunger-free society. “Only time can say.”
Despair and a Digital Bangladesh
28-year old Dhaka resident Rukshana Sultana, who recently earned a Master’s degree in biology but is unemployed, writes in an e-mail interview that the election means a lot to her. She says as much as the country is approaching the AL-led administration positively, the people will carefully watch its every step. With the number of unemployed young people peaking, she writes, job creation, a strong economy, and lower food-prices must be a priority for the new government.
Nabila Naomi, an 18-year old high school senior in Dhaka also writes in an e-mail that the new government must lower the price of rice and invest in road repair in smaller areas. She appears despondent as she writes that she “hates politicians.”
In contrast, 26-year old Sayed Mohammad Mosharof, who holds a Master’s degree in soil and environmental science and works as an environmental analyst in Dhaka, says in an e-mail interview that he had awaited the election with the “hope of an unlimited horizon.” His wish list for the government includes among concerns about corruption, accountability, and high food prices a more technologically advanced, a “digital Bangladesh.”
Self-Censorship, Torture, and Freer Expression
Dr. Kazi Anis Ahmed, Director of Academic Affairs at the University of Liberal Arts in Dhaka, similarly banks on the government’s promise for increased investment in information technology to benefit higher education. Equally important for academia he writes in an e-mail interview that the people will be freer to express themselves. Under the rule of the quasi-military interim government, Dr. Ahmed says, “a great deal of self-censorship” was going on among citizens but also writers, intellectuals, and journalists. After some riots had started at a university campus “on very flimsy ground” but spread countrywide, he writes, thousands of people including students and a few prominent professors were arrested and allegedly handled quite roughly.
One of them was human rights activist and independent journalist Tasneem Khalil. A Human Rights Watch report published in February 2008 details the “The Torture of Tasneem Khalil”. At the time of his arrest Mr. Khalil reported for the respected English language newspaper The Daily Star in Dhaka, CNN, and Human Rights Watch. Among other issues, he covered extrajudicial killings and minority rights. In the report he says that on May 11, 2007 men of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, the military intelligence agency of Bangladesh, arrested him. Khalil writes that during the 22 hours in captivity he was repeatedly verbally abused and beaten. A photo in the report shows a dinner-plate sized purple-red bruise on his left lower back. Mr. Khalil now lives in Sweden.
In an e-mail interview Mr. Khalil writes he would “love to see” the free press as the main weapon to fight hunger and poverty this time. The overwhelming victory of AL was no surprise to him, he says, since he predicted such a victory already two years ago if back then free and fair elections would have been held. “People power has once again won the battle for democracy, something to be excited about.” In his opinion, the new government appears to be “very serious” about fulfilling promises such as quickly fixing the steeply rising food prices – an issue he says will make or break it. He says AL president Sheik Hasina has selected “some of the brightest and honest faces” in Bangladeshi politics. This, Mr. Khalil hopes, signals a pro-people, left-of-center government for the next five years. But he also says he’s worried about the “fascist tendencies” AL has shown in the past. “[I’m] keeping my fingers crossed, so that we don't have to watch the orgy of political violence anymore or see yet another sham parliament in Bangladesh.”
Everything possible, even reelection
Dr. Ahmed warns, “a certain tendency of partisan administration in public academic institutions will persist but needs to be kept within limits.” He hopes the urgent help needed for the economy is really coming as the AL-led alliance seems to be more “economically aware” than previous administrations. If the government keeps it own members in check and insures that the opposition does not leave the parliamentary process, he suggests, “it may become the first to get re-elected in five years.”
But Bangladesh needs to take one step at a time. “Only the struggle for a democratically elected government,” writes Mr. Islam, “can ensure that the people will get the proper democracy one day.” Whereas Mr. Mosharof is enthusiastic that “everything is possible in Bangladesh;” Ms Naomi remains pessimistic: “Neither this government nor [its opponent] BNP can do anything for our country.”
by Stine Eckert
Change. That was not only the buzzword for the recent U.S. election and President Barack Obama, but also for Sheik Hasina, the president of the Awami League (AL) party in Bangladesh. Just as in the United States, the promise of change brought an overwhelming victory in Bangledesh’s general election on December 29, 2008. The AL party-led alliance won an absolute majority by taking 258 of 294 parliamentary seats against its main opponent, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Before, a quasi-military government ran the country during a state of emergency. During these 23 months, citizens' fundamental rights were suspended. For Bangladeshis the first general election in seven years was a breakthrough in returning to democracy; 70% participated.
What hopes and concerns harbor Bangladeshis for the promised changes of the new government? – An unemployed biologist, environmental analyst, high school student, human rights activist, journalist, and university administrator answer.
No proper democracy yet
“It is true that Bangladesh is yet to get the proper democracy, but we are in the process,” writes Muhammad Aminul Islam, senior staff correspondent at the Dhaka-based daily newspaper New Age in an e-mail interview. But he warns that it is yet too early to judge the new government. “Absolute power means absolute corruption,” he says. “I am concerned whether this government can control its members.” He is bruised by the past. Mr. Islam says that between 2001 and 2006 the BNP-led alliance enjoyed a similar majority but crushed the people’s hopes with “unabated irregularities by the ruling party men.” Violence after the recent election by AL rulers and its student wing, he says, have brought back the fear that this government might be a déjà-vu of the BNP rule. His hopes lie with the young and fresh but inexperienced ministers, he says, with whose help the AL administration wants to tackle corruption, reduce inflation, and create a hunger-free society. “Only time can say.”
Despair and a Digital Bangladesh
28-year old Dhaka resident Rukshana Sultana, who recently earned a Master’s degree in biology but is unemployed, writes in an e-mail interview that the election means a lot to her. She says as much as the country is approaching the AL-led administration positively, the people will carefully watch its every step. With the number of unemployed young people peaking, she writes, job creation, a strong economy, and lower food-prices must be a priority for the new government.
Nabila Naomi, an 18-year old high school senior in Dhaka also writes in an e-mail that the new government must lower the price of rice and invest in road repair in smaller areas. She appears despondent as she writes that she “hates politicians.”
In contrast, 26-year old Sayed Mohammad Mosharof, who holds a Master’s degree in soil and environmental science and works as an environmental analyst in Dhaka, says in an e-mail interview that he had awaited the election with the “hope of an unlimited horizon.” His wish list for the government includes among concerns about corruption, accountability, and high food prices a more technologically advanced, a “digital Bangladesh.”
Self-Censorship, Torture, and Freer Expression
Dr. Kazi Anis Ahmed, Director of Academic Affairs at the University of Liberal Arts in Dhaka, similarly banks on the government’s promise for increased investment in information technology to benefit higher education. Equally important for academia he writes in an e-mail interview that the people will be freer to express themselves. Under the rule of the quasi-military interim government, Dr. Ahmed says, “a great deal of self-censorship” was going on among citizens but also writers, intellectuals, and journalists. After some riots had started at a university campus “on very flimsy ground” but spread countrywide, he writes, thousands of people including students and a few prominent professors were arrested and allegedly handled quite roughly.
One of them was human rights activist and independent journalist Tasneem Khalil. A Human Rights Watch report published in February 2008 details the “The Torture of Tasneem Khalil”. At the time of his arrest Mr. Khalil reported for the respected English language newspaper The Daily Star in Dhaka, CNN, and Human Rights Watch. Among other issues, he covered extrajudicial killings and minority rights. In the report he says that on May 11, 2007 men of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, the military intelligence agency of Bangladesh, arrested him. Khalil writes that during the 22 hours in captivity he was repeatedly verbally abused and beaten. A photo in the report shows a dinner-plate sized purple-red bruise on his left lower back. Mr. Khalil now lives in Sweden.
In an e-mail interview Mr. Khalil writes he would “love to see” the free press as the main weapon to fight hunger and poverty this time. The overwhelming victory of AL was no surprise to him, he says, since he predicted such a victory already two years ago if back then free and fair elections would have been held. “People power has once again won the battle for democracy, something to be excited about.” In his opinion, the new government appears to be “very serious” about fulfilling promises such as quickly fixing the steeply rising food prices – an issue he says will make or break it. He says AL president Sheik Hasina has selected “some of the brightest and honest faces” in Bangladeshi politics. This, Mr. Khalil hopes, signals a pro-people, left-of-center government for the next five years. But he also says he’s worried about the “fascist tendencies” AL has shown in the past. “[I’m] keeping my fingers crossed, so that we don't have to watch the orgy of political violence anymore or see yet another sham parliament in Bangladesh.”
Everything possible, even reelection
Dr. Ahmed warns, “a certain tendency of partisan administration in public academic institutions will persist but needs to be kept within limits.” He hopes the urgent help needed for the economy is really coming as the AL-led alliance seems to be more “economically aware” than previous administrations. If the government keeps it own members in check and insures that the opposition does not leave the parliamentary process, he suggests, “it may become the first to get re-elected in five years.”
But Bangladesh needs to take one step at a time. “Only the struggle for a democratically elected government,” writes Mr. Islam, “can ensure that the people will get the proper democracy one day.” Whereas Mr. Mosharof is enthusiastic that “everything is possible in Bangladesh;” Ms Naomi remains pessimistic: “Neither this government nor [its opponent] BNP can do anything for our country.”
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