‘Like a morning after a nuclear attack’
24 March 2023, 18:00 PM Weekend Read
For the Love of Tea
7 January 2022, 18:00 PM Star Literature
Court Corner / SC forms committee against sexual harassment
4 November 2021, 18:00 PM SEXUAL HARASSMENT
How new autocrats curb press freedom
28 November 2019, 18:00 PM Star Weekend
(Uncertain) Future of Journalism in Bangladesh
28 November 2019, 18:00 PM Star Weekend
“Predisposed journalism can never grow and sustain”
28 November 2019, 18:00 PM Star Weekend
Putting the “news” in our news feeds
28 November 2019, 18:00 PM Star Weekend

Hope for peace on the Korean Peninsula

The Korean War began on June 25, 1950 and is “technically” still ongoing in the absence of a validated peace treaty—although, the fighting was ended with the signing of an armistice by North Korea, China and the US (South Korea was not a signatory) on July 27, 1953.
3 May 2018, 18:00 PM

OD-ing on contraceptive pills

Sadia (her name and some others in this article have been changed), 24, while preparing for her upcoming wedding was also worrying about something else—what form of birth control to use. She had been warned by her aunt against using oral contraceptive pills because of the side-effects—that she would gain weight, experience hot flashes. Sadia herself was particularly worried about the hormonal changes due to the pill. Ahead of her wedding, she chose instead to stock up on emergency pills.
3 May 2018, 18:00 PM

Business As Usual?

Farah Sharmin, an HSC student at Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, escaped an attempted rape while on a journey with her mother from Abdullahpur to Rampura on a Shuprobh at Paribahan vehicle in the evening. As the bus neared Rampura and passengers thinned out, Sharmin and her mother were left alone with some boys sitting at the back.
3 May 2018, 18:00 PM

Failing our role?

Doyasona Chakma and Monti Chakma returned just as mysteriously as they disappeared. The two women, both of whom are core elected members of the Hill Women's Federation, were dropped off by their abductors after a month of being held captive.
3 May 2018, 18:00 PM

MAILBOX

Recently, an alarming news was published in the media that a coal-loaded cargo vessel has been sunk in the Pashur river very near the Sundarbans area. This is the fourth time a water vessel has gone down in the area, which regularly cause serious environmental loss to the mangrove forest. The Sundarbans are the largest natural barrier protecting the people of the southern part of our country from many natural
3 May 2018, 18:00 PM

Auschwitz: Reflections and Realisations

Neat rows of red-brick buildings, bathed in brilliant sunlight, stretched out under an azure sky. The carefully manicured grounds, and the forest beyond, were a lush green. One could be forgiven for mistaking it for a well-run summer camp. It certainly did not look anything like what had been portrayed in Schindler's List or the myriad of Holocaust literature. Even the wrought-iron sign above the gates reading
26 April 2018, 18:00 PM

The Cleaner

“Am I a suspect?” I ask the police detective as he directs me to the chair on his right. “No, at this stage we have no suspects and no one has been charged. However, as part of the investigation, we have to talk to the guys who work at the site and run the necessary background checks.”
26 April 2018, 18:00 PM

About Town

Organiser: Retired Armed Forces Officers' Welfare Association (Raowa)
26 April 2018, 18:00 PM

Art as Process: in architect Tanzim's exhibition at Kala Kendra

Architect Tanzim Hasan Salim rose to mainstream prominence when he jointly won the design competition for the new Liberation War Museum. But what is lesser known to the public is the demanding creative and emotional labour that he put into executing such a monumental project. His solo exhibition at Kala Kendra entitled “Drawing and Thinking, Thinking and Drawing-2” displays to the public the phases of
26 April 2018, 18:00 PM

Remember the dead, fight for the living

April 20, 2018—The space in front of Rana Plaza is unrecognisable. The tiny makeshift shops that dot the area are no longer there—like every year, the police have cleared them out ahead of April 24. Instead, there are five bright floral-printed hand-stitched quilts made of old saris draped across the plot that once used to house four factories.
26 April 2018, 18:00 PM

The man with 100 forest cases... and why he claims he is innocent

Hssan Ali appeared at Tangail Forest Court on January 4, 2018 to take bail in a 'forest case' (no. 405) that was filed in 1998 for felling of trees. He had been charged in absentia on December 27, 2017. The court issued a warrant of arrest. On January 4, he secured a bail to stay out of jail.
26 April 2018, 18:00 PM

Qualified, but Rejected

It's 11 am. Mosammat Ayesha rushes to the classroom of grade four to take attendance. After the roll call, she asks the students to open their English grammar book and go through a grammar lesson. While the students fumble through their books, Ayesha quickly moves to the classroom of grade five. There, she again takes the attendance and asks the students to open their mathematics books. Instructing them to solve some arithmetic problems, she returns to the classroom of grade four to help students with grammar lessons.
26 April 2018, 18:00 PM

How the quota reform movement was shaped by social media

The recent quota reform protests took place as much on the streets of Dhaka as it did online, particularly on Facebook. Pitched battles in the middle of the night resulted as people responded to updates in real time. Events at the University of Dhaka (DU) led to uproar spreading to other universities in the city and other major cities of the country, where the youth took up protests in solidarity as well as a shared demand that the quota system, which reserves
26 April 2018, 18:00 PM

Some animals are more equal than others

Her Facebook inbox is now flooded with rape threats. One sender called her a pig and said she should've been raped when she was still a baby in her mother's lap. Another, a Bangladesh Chhatra League member of Sreepur named Shajib Hassan, insinuated that she should sell herself to men. Yet another BCL man from Sylhet called Abu Taher Juned asked her whether she would have sex with him for Tk 200-250. A Qatar-based BCL man called Syed Shupon Augustia Mizan threatened to rape her mother. A Jubo League member from Companiganj called Main Uddin Ujjol threatened to rape her.
26 April 2018, 18:00 PM

MAILBOX

This is in reference to a write-up on "Is social media inciting violence in Myanmar?" by Maliha Khan published in Star Weekend on April 13 which explained the controversial role of Facebook in ethnic cleansing atrocities committed against the Rohingya by Myanmar security forces and ultra-nationalist Buddhist communities.
26 April 2018, 18:00 PM

All Talk and No Action?

Five years ago, over 1,100 garment workers lost their lives and hundreds became permanently disabled. The collapse of Rana Plaza, the deadliest disaster in the global garment industry, shook the world, revealing that low-price Bangladeshi garments came at a tremendous cost—workers' lives. At the time, many promises were made by all relevant stakeholders to ensure the rights and safety of the garment workers in Bangladesh and reform the RMG sector.
19 April 2018, 18:00 PM

When the government does nothing

Last Thursday, a Dhaka-based organisation working with conservation of heritage posted urgently on Facebook about an unfortunate development unfolding in Lakhsmibazaar. “We just got to know today that the century-old beautiful building in Nobodwip Basak lane number 3 will be broken down on April 16. The contractor hired to do the job has already moved into the property,” the post by Urban Study Group (USG) states. Attached is an image of a home, the architecture of which is one of a kind and very rarely seen nowadays. The front facade has the atypical arches of the past
19 April 2018, 18:00 PM

The government is right to be afraid

The quota reform movement that exploded on to the nation's radar last week enjoyed enormous public support, especially among university students. I can't underscore enough the extent of its popularity—in a series of surprise resignations, university-level leaders of the ruling party's student wing broke ranks to join the movement.
19 April 2018, 18:00 PM

Humanitarian response, at a cost

An elephant walks through Kutupalong camp in the morning, in between the huts it easily dwarfs, while all around is the worried muttering of the camp inhabitants uncertain as to what to do. A crowd of Rohingya men and boys follow it at a distance, trying to shoo it away while others crouch on the roofs to watch.
19 April 2018, 18:00 PM

A law to gag your online freedom

Less than a month after Bangladesh's cabinet approved the 'Digital Security Act 2018' in late January, Human Rights Watch, a top rights group, published a strong response in its website. Pointing out the vagueness of Section 31 of the draft act, which would criminalise posting of information that “disturbs or is about to disturb the law and order situation,” HRW said, “Almost any criticism of the government may lead to dissatisfaction and the possibility of
19 April 2018, 18:00 PM