Our country is developing quite fast, except for one thing, gender equality. The men of our country do not yet totally support it but do our women support it fully? In our country, it is thought that women can't do everything like men.

It is rare for women to be at the top, period. And even rarer for that woman to have worked their way to the top—more commonly, those who hold privileged positions often inherit their family businesses. Here, we feature women in diverse industries who have worked their way to the top, in a man’s world.

It was the evening of September 2016. A brilliant display of attacking football by Marzia and Co helped Bangladesh's Under-16 women's team come back after conceding an early goal to beat their closest group rivals, Chinese Taipei, in the Asian Football Confederation's Under-16 Women's Championship Qualifiers. The intense finish sealed the girls a spot in the much-coveted final round of the Championships.

How do we define empowerment? What is it like to feel empowered? Is it possible to feel empowered, all the time? Empowerment these days is a buzzword for development practitioners (including myself), the unquestioned “good” aspired to by women in local communities and grassroots levels.

Hello dear reader. You may be a feminist, a boy, a woman, or just flipping through. We are no longer in a situation where individuals can win by themselves. People need to be organised, and organise themselves, their peoples. Many communities have been organised decades now for their...

Through Nilima Jahan's article, published in the Star Weekend on March 2, we got to know of the misdeeds of the police. Actually, this department is completely corrupt, you cannot hope to get a single service from them without greasing someone's palm—whether you are having your passport made to perform Hajj or want a police clearance certificate to go abroad. Last month, when the “Passport Service Week-

I listen in abject horror as my three-year-old comes back from school one day and proclaims that his playtime with his afternoon neighbourhood playmates will now consist of “the boys on one side and girls on the other”. My carefully constructed gender-equality declarations and almost repeated bad gerings over the past few years on his swiftly developing brain seems to have collapsed in one session of rough

Tania Sultana, a 23-year-old sewing operator at “Esses Fashion Ltd.” of BEXIMCO Textiles can now take home her compensation for 30 days of work at the end of the month, but it was difficult for her to do so just a few months ago. She was not always able to make it to work, especially on heavy-flow days when she could not work for 8-10 hours at a stretch. Since unsanitary rags were Sultana's only recourse, she would find it impossible to wash and

Last time, I wrote about how Dhaka's public spaces exude a strong maleness and how women walk about the city wearing their gender like the proverbial albatross that just would not unburden their shoulders. How does that weigh on men? I would say heavier!

Though the government has made an announcement to recognise our gender identity as "Hijras" or "Third Gender" in 2013 and promised to rehabilitate us by appointing 12 of us in government jobs in the first phase, they have failed to keep their promises so far. When we were going through the medical tests for the job, the doctors of the government hospital refused to touch us and instructed their assistants to strip

International Women's D­­ay is entering its 108th year. Debates and discussions inevitably ensue each March about women's long journey through the years. This year, however, I want to introduce you to some of my life partners. These courageous women have been my friends and have slowly but surely been leaving their mark on my own life, changing me for the better. They give me the strength to stand strong, and dream of a better, more egalitarian future.

The world's youngest country, South Sudan, has been caught in the throes of a violent civilian conflict. Now in its fourth year, the ongoing war is afflicting the lives of millions of people, especially women and children, in irredeemable ways. Here's a snapshot of how poverty, disease and famine are plaguing the nation. Its people, however, continue to hope against all odds for a better, peaceful, tomorrow.

The rather long and tongue-twisting name of Apichatpong Weerasethakul may not be at the tip of the tongue for the average cinephile in Bangladesh, but it is ubiquitous to any serious follower of contemporary independent cinema anywhere in the world. Winner of the Cannes trifecta of Palme d'Or, Un Certain Regard and jury prize (in different editions), the 47-year-old from Thailand has been a darling

The Academy Awards are the one sporting tournament I follow with any level of engagement. I pay attention to the cottage industry of prognosticators that starts speculating straight out of Sundance, more than a year before the ceremony; I despair about the unsuccessful campaigns mounted by my favorites, as they fall by the wayside; I predict potential nominees and winners; I exult and rant about the films that make it; and, every late winter or early spring, I watch the overlong spectacle alternating between feelings of suspense, delight, and stultifying boredom.

On the afternoon of December 29, 2017, Nurnabi Sarkar, a senior reporter from Jamuna Television was having tea at a stall near the capital's Technical bus stop in Mirpur. Sarkar was waiting for his aunt, who was due to arrive from Sirajganj. All of a sudden, two police constables came to him and said that their senior official was asking for him.

2018 was supposed to begin on a positive note for 65-year-old stone worker Jahur Ali. Jahur had received an assignment to extract a huge pile of stones—more stones than he had collected in the recent past and that meant more money.

A contemporary art exhibition to celebrate friendship and unity of countries with Bengali katha embroidery

I met Sabah Tani back in 2012 when I was asked to be one of the judges for the initial audition round of a TV music reality show. It was a fascinating experience, being a first-timer in something of that sort. I got the opportunity to visit all eight divisions of Bangladesh in 25 days, which otherwise I would have neither the strength nor the time to do. Our primary job was to listen to contestants sing and decide

"Which university do you want to go to?” I wrote down on a notebook. She circled the word “university” and weakly asked in a shaky voice that barely rose above a whisper: “What does this word mean?” Maisha will be graduating tenth grade in less than a year from a reputable institution in the city, but her performance at school lags behind her peers'—as can be seen from the absence of the word “university” from her vocabulary.

In the first part of this series the Star Weekend revealed, how huge amounts of waqf (an endowment made by a Muslim to religious, educational or charitable cause) properties in Bangladesh have been completely grabbed by illegal occupiers. We found that 122,294 acres of endowed estates are now under illegal occupation and Bangladesh government's waqf administration has lost control over 90 percent of these estates.