Washington, DC – On March 8, year after year, the world prepares to celebrate International Women’s Day to commemorate the all-round achievements of women and demand gender equality and reproductive rights. This day marks unequivocal opposition to violence and abuse against women, and participants introduce resolutions to end this endemic, leaving no stone unturned. The horror of another war is unfolding in Europe, as Russia invades Ukraine, with severe effects on vulnerable women and children trapped in the crossfire. While it is indeed hard to witness the killings of innocent civilians for no rhyme or reason, there is at least hope…
Author: Priya Saha
Statement on International Women’s Day by Human Rights Congress of Bangladesh Minorities Statement on International Women’s Day by Human Rights Congress of Bangladesh Minorities PR Newswire WASHINGTON, March 8, 2022 WASHINGTON, March 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — War crimes, if left unrecognized and unpunished, only lead to more aggression and suffering. There is no better time to reiterate that than today, as we see millions of people- women and children face death and destitution. More than 50 years after the Pakistan Army perpetrated violence and sexual assault on more than 300,000 Bengali women, and killed three million people, the war crimes…
Washington, DC – On a sultry afternoon in May 1971, Wajed Ali stood exhausted on the banks of the Bhadra river in East Pakistan. He had made enough money not only for the day but for the months to come. In the uncertain times of the Muktijuddho, it is always a good idea to have some extra savings up in the sleeve. Ansar Ali Sardar had also made a similar fortune, and so did the other 40 odd men on that day. Wajed Ali had teamed up with another fortune seeker, and together they began to dispose of the corpses one…
Priya Saha is a women’s and human rights activist, founder of a human rights organization, publisher and editor of a Bengali newspaper, columnist, and researcher.She is from Bangladesh and is now in exile in the United States as a result of her outspokenness about minority persecution in Bangladesh under US President Donald Trump. She was invited by the state department to talk at the 2nd Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom on July 16-18, 2019. And she got an opportunity to meet with the president as a persecuted religious lady. Then the Bangladeshi Islamist community, government, and radical groups reacted seriously,…
NEW YORK, May 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Exactly fifty-one years ago, this day, the Pakistani Army carried out the largest single-day massacre in Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan). With the active participation of some Bangladeshi-origin Islamists (also called Razakars), Chuknagar is a small business town located in Khulna district and very close to the India-Bangladesh border. In the early morning of May 20, the Pakistani soldiers, carrying light machine guns (LMGs) and semi-automatic rifles, opened fire on the civilians. Ten thousand civilians, mostly members of the region’s Hindu minority waiting to seek refuge in India, were killed in one day. Many women were raped before being shot, and their brutalized dead bodies were…
Iraq and NATO convulsions: Christians, LGBT, Yazidis, and failed state Kanako Mita, Sawako Utsumi, and Lee Jay Walker Modern Tokyo Times The Western media (on the whole) with Japan jumping on the anti-Russia bandwagon, under Prime Minister Fumio Kishida – is providing the simple “heroic” versus “demonic” narrative once more. Hence, Ukraine bombing the Donbas region (Russians and Russian speakers) since 2014 – and countless media sources highlighting the Neo-Nazi angle to Ukrainian nationalism – are conveniently glossed over. Therefore, despite the ongoing convulsions of Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo (Serbia), Libya, Syria – and other wars – the binding themes of…
BEIRUT: “Lebanon always needs Arab sponsorship, and (I hope) all the Gulf countries, in particular, will restore ties with Lebanon, which needs its Arab environment to embrace it,” Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said during his visit to the Doha Forum on Saturday. Mikati met Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani at the forum’s headquarters. His media office said he discussed ties between Lebanon and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. Mikati also met his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al-Thani. In a press conference following the two meetings, Mikati said: “What is meant to be shall…
I may not be the church-going type, but I certainly know a sermon when I hear one — and Eric Adams has been doing an awful lot of sermonizing since assuming office Dec. 31. Of course, with his focus on gun violence and post-pandemic recovery — rather than education reform and economic inequality — Adams’ preaching sounds far different from that of his predecessor. But what’s most different about Adams is his message and his audience: Accountability in the black community. Few topics are more taboo for white politicians — even a white politico with a black wife and black…
The everyday instances of discrimination against religious minorities are not only the result of Islamic extremism but many repugnancy provisions in the constitution of Pakistan actively emboldens and institutionalise these discriminations. The recent incident of killing of a Hindu girl, Pooja Oad in Sindh district for resisting abduction attempt and forced conversion summarises the constant fear under which non-muslims, particularly Hindus and Sikhs, are forced to live in Pakistan. Apart from the constant threat to their lives via false blasphemy charges, there exist discriminatory legal, institutional and constitutional provisions which force religious minorities in Pakistan to live a life of second…
Satyen Mohapatra With the United States coming out and formally declaring that Myanmar’s military junta was committing “genocide” against the minority Rohingyas, the international pressure on the ruling dispensation is likely to increase. Till recently, the US had stopped short of declaring officially that what was happening in Myanmar was “genocide” and not just “ethnic cleansing”. We may generally use the words genocide and ethnic cleansing interchangeable but legally and under the UN Genocide Convention genocide has a specific definition. Difference between genocide and ethnic cleansing? According to Article II, UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime…
File photo The nation is celebrating the 52nd Independence and National Day today in a befitting manner. The government has taken elaborate programmes marking the Independence and National Day. President Md Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave separate messages extending heartfelt greetings and warm felicitations to the countrymen living both home and abroad on the eve of the day. The day’s programmes began by heralding gun salutes early in the morning as a mark of profound respect to the heroic struggle of this nation, which suffered a protracted subjugation under foreign rules from time to…
Countdown to Bangladesh 1971 26 March, 2022, 09:50 am Last modified: 26 March, 2022, 01:29 pm 26 March, 2022, 09:50 am Last modified: 26 March, 2022, 01:29 pm 1940 23 March: A conference of the All-India Muslim League, meeting in Lahore, adopts a resolution calling for the creation of independent states for Muslims in the subcontinent. Photo: Archive”> Photo: Archive 1946 16 August: Hindu-Muslim riots break out in Kolkata following a call for “direct action” by the Muslim League. Over the next four days, thousands of Hindus and Muslims lost their lives and the troubles spread to other parts of…