Bangladesh was founded as a secular state – but the former regime established Islam as the state religion. This doesn’t tally, and the double ledger has resulted in a tug-of-war that leads ultimately...
The situation for secular intellectuals in Bangladesh is worsening by the day. According to the American human rights defender Michael De Dora, hopes cannot be pinned on civil society and...
How democratised a society is can be judged by how it treats its minorities. From day one, Bangladesh has endeavored to be a secular and pluralist state – but concessions to various extremist forces...
The very popular blog Mukto-Mona (free thought) was the victim of an Islamist terrorist attack this year that left four of its writers dead. The blog was a successful experiment in freethinking and...
For 31-year-old cartoonist Arifur Rahman, drawing proved a life-threatening activity in Bangladesh. In 2007, he was arrested and tortured for six months for having blasphemed against Islam. In 2010 he...
What’s it like to write about feminism and women’s issues in Bangladesh? Author and blogger Marzia Prova has fought long and hard to get to write openly about sex, rape, equality, menstruation and...
Freedom of expression has a long history in what is now Bangladesh – but nowadays, old power elites are using religiously motivated terrorism to crush it. And our elected politicians are wavering in...
Anisur Rahman, poet, critic and playwright, was guest writer in Uppsala from 2009 to 2011. This newly written poem was composed in response to the murder of the very well-known author and blogger...
28-year old blogger and journalist Shamima Mitu left Bangladesh on November 5. She was receiving severe threats because of her writings on social issues. With the aid of The Palme Centre and Swedish...
On February 26th the blogger Avijit Roy was murdered on his way home from a book fair together with his wife. The writer Shabnam Nadiya, who was a childhood friend of Roy, here writes an open letter...
Text: Shabnam Nadiya
December 17 2015
Subscribe to PEN/Opp newsletter
Like what you read here? Sign up to our newsletter to receive updates on new issue content.
