Unheard Voices

1. Roses & Sexual Harrassment (July 2008)

2. Open letter to the Chancellor of Jahangirnagar University (Oct 2001)

Anu Muhammad, Rahnuma Ahmed, Naseem Akhter Hussain, Amir Hossain, Nurul Hoque, Sayeed Ferdous, Sharmind Nilormee, Mirza Taslima Sultana, Mafruhi Sattar, Rayhan Raine, Manosh Chowdhury

Honourable Chancellor, Jahangirnagar University
For the last couple of weeks, a section of the students of Jahangirnagar University and its cultural activists have been spearheading a movement. Their demands are chiefly, that those students who were accused of committing rape in 1998 should not be allowed to sit for their exams, that their certificates should be withdrawn and, that a code against Sexual Harassment should be implemented. It is obvious that the demands raised by the students are principled ones and, these have the support of a section of the teachers of Jahangirnagar University out of a sense of commitment toward these principles. In 1998, the teachers of Jahangirnagar University had condemned the incidence of campus rape. As a matter of fact, the Jahangirnagar University Teachers Association (JUTA) itself had taken a stand on the matter. In this respect, we would also like to point out that the head of the previous caretaker government, Chief Justice Habibur Rahman, while delivering his address at the last Convocation of the University, had paid his respects toward the spirit of the campus anti-rape movement. Honourable Chancellor, we know that you yourself are well aware of these events. (more…)

Whether a mugging, road accident, or protests against a national policy — whenever something goes wrong in our country, violence breaks out. Actions one would never even imagine taking individually are carried out by groups or “the mob”. Is this anger a response to a failing social system where people feel forced to take the law into their own hands? Does this violence erupt all of a sudden, or is it dormant inside us all, just waiting for a trigger to set it off? (more…)

The violence is continuing for the 3rd day running and Rajshahi has turned into a battlefield. But the big question is what are they protesters protesting about when all of the demands have been met.

I have no independent verification of this but alarmingly shadakalo blog is reporting the following

- The 3 service chiefs met with US and UK embassy officials and UN officials for an all-nighter. The martial-law question came up, and was put on hold for the time being but that option is not off the table.
- Unrest spreading to other universities
- Education adviser’s house in Dhanmondi has been attacked by a procession.

I saw the news footage of people breaking private cars and buses. It doesn’t look like it is done by general students any more. After the apology, the withdrawal of the camp, neither I am sure what the protesters are protesting now. I want to echo eishob and jyoti in saying a premature end to CTG will bring grave danger for our country. The first two days of protest was an eye-opener for powers that may be, but now continuing past the first two days without genuine grivences will not only lose the public appeal but also put our country in a collision course that we are not prepared to handle. As we know from history that its always a vested quarter who reaps the benefit of such aimless revolt, unrest and destruction.

Update:

After having speaking to more people, I feel I should correct this post by saying that a newer element to this protest is that it spread like wildfire across the country which we haven’t seen even in the heady days of anti-government movement of november last year. So what’s the difference? Downplaying it as simply as political hackjob would be a mistake. We have often talked about here the labour unrest, the disconnect of the government with the real people, the inflation– add this to the years of neglect of public interest by previous governments, such massive unrest was predicted but it wasn’t seen to be coming this quickly. We will have a further post today on how the CTG blew it by losing its moral authority in governing the country. The nervousness in Barrister Mainul Hossain’s face yesterday was palpable. If the government goes down, he and people like him will bear the major responsibilities. Very sad and disappointing day for Bangladesh.

Student anger again rocks Dhaka university campus and is spreading to other campuses. The rage, this time, is against the member of nations’ defence forces camped in Dhaka university gymnasium. A trivial soccer field brawl started this episode of student unrest. While a heated debate goes on at the previous thread, not very surprisingly, there are quite a few voices against this student movement in favor of the military occupation of Dhaka University. This is in sharp contrast to the overwhelming public support any student movement used to enjoy in this part of the world. Anyway, this movement begins at a time, when people started asking whether the once famous student power, the uncontrollable force of collective rage, is still alive and waiting to be awaken. Although the events of last night definitely answered the query– question remains whether this major student protest would have any impact to the political scene of Bangladesh. (more…)