Borsha* did not know she had no right to fall in love. In fact, she did not even know, she had

no right to be. She was one of the many floating prostitutes of a mazaar area, who existed, but not really. She was a fool who made the mistake of falling in love, an imbecile [...]

Azmal Hosen Mamun
According to the World Health Organization (WTO), there are 7.5 million women with disabilities in Bangladesh. They often face great difficulty in accessing education, vocational training, employment and income-generating opportunities on an equal basis with others in our community. This is because of the discrimination they face on the basis of being women, [...]

Women working in different sectors in Dhaka City and other parts of the country are routinely subjected to inhumane forms of exploitation, including physical and mental abuse. Women working at different emerging sectors including apparel have expressed their anger over the sexual harassment they often face in their working zones. Talking to this correspondent, a [...]

The Labour Law 2006 (of Bangladesh) clearly states that a worker has the right to rest and recreation during and after work hours. In fact, the law ensures the workers security, the right to take his or her employer to court in case of an offence, compensations in case of accidents, weekly and yearly holidays, [...]

In the last 4 years women were the most vulnerable groups in Bangladesh that witnessed an alarming increase in human rights violations. From 01 January 2001 to 31 December 2004 a sum of 4195 women and children raped across the country. Among them 467 women were killed after raped and 45 women committed suicide after [...]

In one of the most gruesome violations of child rights, a four month old baby girl has become the youngest victim of a brutal acid attack which has not only scarred her physically but will now destroy her emotional and psychological well being as well. The innocent child will be forced to live with deformities [...]

Locked in her eyes was a glimpse of ache. The girl looked at me with teary eyes, her mouth covered with her torn shawl and her hands shaking as she tried to calm down and sit beside me. I gave her a reassured look, but deep inside even I knew nothing could beat the lamentable [...]

Ferdousi is a girl of 22 studying in a renowned private university. She is good-looking and lovely in appearance. Two month ago, her settle marriage day was fixed and final but it was fully broken down due to the curse of dowry. Her father is a service holder in general. He did not arrange the [...]

THE current economic crisis is unravelling before us faster than even the most pessimistic of experts predicted just a few months ago.
The effects are already trickling down to ordinary working people. In Asia Pacific, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has projected that as many as 27 million more people could become unemployed this year. One [...]

Muslim women around the world are facing a “growing crisis” as Islamic governments fail to honour commitments to end inequality and violence against them, a senior UN official has warned.
Yakin Erturk, the UN’s rapporteur on violence against women, said at a weekend conference that women must demand their governments carry out pledges [...]

A Victim Support Centre (VSC) has been established in the city to provide all kinds of legal support to women and children who are victims of repression or harassment. Bangladesh Police and 10 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have partnered in establishing the specialised centre in Tejgaon thana compound with assistance from the [...]

A tale of atrocities perpetrated on women offers a powerful testimony to different types of gender-based violence experienced by women and girls throughout their lives.
Violence against women is a pandemic, one that transcends the bounds of race, culture, class and religion. It touches virtually every community, in virtually every corner of the country. Too often [...]

FOR parents nothing can be more heartbreaking than seeing their young daughter’s corpse covered in white sheets. Rozina Akhter’s parents had such a misfortune a few weeks back.
The body of their beloved daughter Rozina, 20, was on a van at the Bishwamvarpur police station, Sunamganj. No, she did not die in a road accident or [...]

SOME months ago, recommendations came to the government from a conference on ensuring the birth certificates of bridegrooms and brides during the marriage registration. The suggested minimum age of marriage as proposed for men is 23 and brides must be 18 years of age. Earlier, a similar conference was organized by two more NGOs. The [...]

In Bangladesh, 12,000 women die needlessly every year as a result of the complications of pregnancy and childbirth. We have the knowledge and technology to prevent most of these deaths. Progress has been made in reducing maternal deaths in Bangladesh, but it needs to be faster and it needs to benefit more poor people.
2007 marks [...]