New
Internationalist
The material that follows has been provided by the New
Internationalist
[Each image links to a full-sized version, saved as a jpeg]
A state of danger
This is Shahidul Alam's inside story, in words and pictures, of the intense struggle against repression which has been raging in Bangladesh, unnoticed by the Western media. Resistance work there is dangerous - photographers and journalists are regularly attacked and arrested.
In the beginning there was light. One of the climactic moments from Begum Khaleda Zia's
victorious election campaign in 1991. Hope burgeons as Bangladesh launches into a rare
free and fair election. The latest in a series of military-backed dictators, Hussain
Mohammad Ershad, had finally been ousted two months before following an intensive
three-year campaign for democracy.
But the optimism is short-lived. Demonstrators take to the streets when the
Government allies with the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islam, whose leaders aided
the Pakistani Army's genocide of Bangladeshis in 1971. Under the watchful eye
of authority, children of that war's martyrs demand the trial of the war criminals.
Women feel they have most to lose if the Islamic fundamentalists gain ground.
On International Women's Day in 1994 Shamima Nazneed enacts a play by Tagore
(Stri'r Potro, 'The Wife's Letter') which shows the oppressive influence of
the family.
The Government becomes increasingly repressive and starts to rig by-elections, leading all
opposition parties to resign from Parliament. A general election is called and there is a
brutal clampdown on dissent. This student is arrested on 31 January 1996 in a police swoop
on a mainly Hindu hall of Dhaka University - he screams out to friends from the prison
van.
Resistance hits the streets.
The opposition boycott of the election is complete: polling stations stand idle. Yet the
Government reports a huge turnout of voters and a landslide victory. The contrast with the
last election is painful as heavy security cordons guard Khaleda Zia while she addresses
her followers. She is just visible over their shoulders in the centre, aloof and distant
heir to an autocratic tradition.
An old friend of the NI, Shahidul Alam is guiding light of Drik, a remarkable photographic agency in Dhaka.
Full text of the article, A State of Danger
 Contents page |
 NI Home Page |
