Shagufe Hossain

"EVE-TEASING”, the colloquial term for public sexual harassment in use despite directives being issued by the High Court about changing it to a more appropriate term, alludes to the monotheism’s (mainly biblical sources) creation story concerning Adam and Eve.

Mf first visit to a madrasa school for female students was in July 2014. We met in a large rectangular room, with a faint damp stench,

Last year, an English daily published a report that the police arrested at least 21,883 suspected drug-peddlers and addicts across the country between May 18 and June 21 as part of the anti-drug drives.

The body of 15-year-old Aritry Adhikary was found hanging from the ceiling fan of her room, with the door locked from inside, at her Shantinagar home on Monday.

It is no coincidence that the word “articulate” begins with the word “art”. There is an art to the formation of clear and distinct sounds in speech.

A human being has five senses. Taste, smell, touch, hearing and sight. These senses are essential for survival that is the ultimate goal

Last Sunday, the front page of The Daily Star displayed an image of a classroom. In the photograph, a teacher of Chhalia Government Primary School in Sylhet was seen as imparting lessons upon her students on the school playground.

My postgraduate classroom was filled with teachers and social workers. Self-proclaimed idealists. Once, during a highly theoretical discussion, someone made a comment about how we are not all as selfless as we claim.

Stalking wasn't considered a crime until fairly recently. The High Court declared stalking of girls and women illegal, and directed the government to consider the offence as sexual harassment in 2011.

The front page of The Daily Star published a photo that could be a poster for any women's empowerment campaign. In the picture, 15-year-old Ontora, calls passengers to board a Mirpur-bound BRTC bus, her face a perfect picture of strength and resilience.

The fundamental need of a human being, I think, is to feel seen. To connect.

When I was an undergraduate student, I remember reading about a campaign in Libya by a grassroots organisation, Voice of Libyan Women. They were, at the time, running a campaign against domestic violence.

Bullying is an interesting, unique and complex form of interpersonal aggression. It is a distinctive pattern of harming and humiliating others, especially those who are in some way smaller, weaker, younger or in any way more vulnerable than the bully.

We are all commodities. Different parts of us are up for sale, as and when demand dictates, all the time. But it causes significant discomfort in me when vulnerable bodies are transformed into commodities.

November has arrived. I have been looking forward to November since I came back mid this year. It is the month when rays of light fall differently on your face, sound travels differently, sunshine thins, and the mist thickens.

The University of Dhaka has long prided itself as the premier educational institution of our country. Since its establishment in 1921, it has come to be known as the oldest modern university in Bangladesh, making significant intellectual contributions to the country providing education to over 30,000 students.

My five-year-old niece and I were practising drawing. She drew a sun and a moon and extended the rays of the sun a little further than necessary. I asked her what the rays were falling on and she drew a street.

There is something very beautiful about being in transition, being stuck in between. Whether it's in transit at an airport, a city that's somewhere between the east and the west, dawn or dusk, when the day is either deciding on a beginning or an end, or a woman in her adolescence, on the journey to transforming into a woman from a child.

The goal in genocidal rape is not simply to hurt people or to have sex. The goal is Group Destruction. Sexual violence is not simply an auxiliary tool employed to advance this goal, but given the nature of rape and sexual torture, it is the ultimate weapon.

“I am at Balukhali camp in Ukhia, the situation is far, far worse than what I have seen on the media, I just talked to a woman who is 9 months pregnant, no idea where her husband is, had not one thing to eat today."