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HERSTORY Who gets to author Bangladesh’s transition?
— New Age/ Sony Ramani by Tina Nandi TODAY, as Bangladesh joins the world in observing International Women’s Day, this Women’s Day arrives in the shadow of July 2024 — a political rupture whose meaning, authorship, and outcomes are still being negotiated. Political transitions are often commemorated as moments of progress, yet they also expose how fragile and contingent women’s gains remain. In Bangladesh, women’s revolutionary labour has repeatedly been made hyper-visible
10 min read
Balancing the scales of safety and power
by Anita Jahid ON A busy working day, a woman stands at a crowded bus stop and shifts her scarf slightly, careful to conceal the faint bruise on her arm, the mark she received at home the night before. As she boards the bus, she clutches her bag tighter when the vehicle lurches forward. She is not only trying to keep her balance; she is calculating risk: where to stand, how to avoid unwanted contact, and whether she should get off early. The calculation does not end when she
5 min read
POWER AND POLITICS OF VISIBILITY When transition becomes a gendered battlefield
by Lubna Ferdowsi POLITICAL transitions are often framed as moments of democratic possibility, new rules, new actors, new beginnings. In Bangladesh, as in many post-authoritarian or transitional contexts, the language of reform, neutrality, and renewal has dominated public discourse. Yet beneath this rhetoric lies a familiar contradiction: women are highly visible in political conversations but largely excluded from political power. Gender equality becomes something to be spo
7 min read
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