Before Shahbag. Police pepper spray and water cannon Communist Party strike. Source: BdNews24.com
Boomerang
by Naeem Mohaiemen
[Edited version of this was published in Dhaka Tribune]
When you ask an already powerful state to expand their powers further, so as to pummel those you oppose, don’t be surprised if the state also decides to use that power against you. Continue reading
Daily Star has announced that FORUM, it’s long-running monthly magazine, will close down as a “cost-saving” measure. FORUM was originally published in the 1960s/70s, with an editorial board that included Hameeda Hossain, Rehman Sobhan, and others. It was revived in the 00′s with Zafar Sobhan as editor. For last few years, Kajalie Shahreen Islam is the editor. It is the country’s only monthly magazine of serious, long-form, non-fiction essays in English. Continue reading
@ bdnews24
The “Islamists” burn newspapers when they are offended by a cartoon, the newspaper apologizes and fires the cartoonist. Later he spends months in jail, and eventually flees into exile in Europe.
The “Secularists” burn newspapers when they are offended by a story, the newspaper and author apologizes and withdraws the story from the website. Continue reading
Mohammad Shahjahan, ‘Smuggling of Antiquities worth one crore’ in Weekly Bichitra , November 18, 1977, p 1
David Nalin: friend or smuggler of antiquities?
Guest Post by Dr. Perween Hasan
I was surprised and angered to read a report in the daily Prothom Alo (March 30, 2013) entitled ‘ This country is destined to march forward: an interview with David Nalin, a friend from overseas’. Continue reading
Sometimes you wait your whole life to meet someone properly.
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Shanu Lahiri is no more. A great and rare soul has left Kolkata and the earth.
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A history of censorship in Bangladesh (1972-2012)
by Naeem Mohaiemen
[An abbreviated version of this was published in Daily Star's FORUM magazine]
I first started researching Bangladeshi censorship cases during a relatively minor incident– the 2007 “Mohammed Biral” (Mohammed cat) cartoon controversy in the satirical magazine Alpin. A list of post-1971 cases was meant to be the appendix to a sarcastic essay, “Save us from cats”. The piece was, appropriately enough, rejected by the newspapers. “Too sensitive a subject,” I was told. Let sleeping cats lie, as it were.
In the years since 2007, I kept adding items to this list, and was gradually struck by the Continue reading
