https://znetwork.org/category/place/asia/bangladesh/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Fri, 05 Sep 2025 02:48:16 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/category/place/asia/bangladesh/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/understanding-the-roots-of-the-trans-resistance-crisis-in-bangladesh/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/understanding-the-roots-of-the-trans-resistance-crisis-in-bangladesh/#respond Fri, 05 Sep 2025 15:45:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1288201 When one reads through the handful of media pieces covering Bangladesh’s transgender community, the narrative is usually about their victimhood and aspirational longing for a better yet elusive future. In Bangladesh, hijras (individuals assigned male at birth who harbor outwardly feminine expressions) have long lived on the margins. Scholarly interest in this gender non-conforming community [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/understanding-the-roots-of-the-trans-resistance-crisis-in-bangladesh/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-five-pronged-strategy-to-end-plastic-pollution-in-bangladesh-with-people-at-the-center/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-five-pronged-strategy-to-end-plastic-pollution-in-bangladesh-with-people-at-the-center/#respond Fri, 18 Jul 2025 16:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1286362 Despite having over 5,000 plastic-producing industries, Bangladesh has fewer than 300 mostly informal recycling plants, leaving it ill-equipped to handle the 400 tons of daily plastic waste, including 646 tons from Dhaka alone. Of the estimated 87,000 tonnes of single-use plastic consumed annually, only 37% is recycled. Methane from open dumpsites worsens air quality, while 63% of plastic [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-five-pronged-strategy-to-end-plastic-pollution-in-bangladesh-with-people-at-the-center/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/small-farming-urbanisation-and-climate-migration-beyond-the-stereotypes-in-bangladesh/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/small-farming-urbanisation-and-climate-migration-beyond-the-stereotypes-in-bangladesh/#respond Mon, 02 Dec 2024 17:27:39 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1276496 Bangladesh is a small country that sits within the Northeast of South Asia with India wrapped around it, and Myanmar to the South. Despite its small size and relatively recent independence, Bangladesh plays an oversized role in the way poverty, development, climate change and urbanisation are imagined globally. Often in discussions of climate change the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/small-farming-urbanisation-and-climate-migration-beyond-the-stereotypes-in-bangladesh/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bangladesh-from-despot-to-neoliberal-leader/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bangladesh-from-despot-to-neoliberal-leader/#respond Thu, 26 Sep 2024 15:55:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1272864 On August 5, Sheikh Hasina Wajed, the prime minister of Bangladesh for the last 15 years, had to resign and run from the country after being driven out by student protesters. The student movement began with demands to end the quota (the allocation of many government jobs to the descendants of freedom fighters). But it [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bangladesh-from-despot-to-neoliberal-leader/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/tariq-ali-on-u-s-u-k-arming-israels-war-on-gaza-pakistan-protests-macrons-embrace-of-the-right/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/tariq-ali-on-u-s-u-k-arming-israels-war-on-gaza-pakistan-protests-macrons-embrace-of-the-right/#respond Wed, 11 Sep 2024 13:53:47 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1272193 We speak to acclaimed historian, activist and filmmaker Tariq Ali about Western governments’ support for Israel’s war on Gaza and popular protest in support of Palestine, which Ali calls the “biggest divide we’ve seen in politics almost since the Vietnam War.” He argues that this division is “challenging the very nature of democracy” and the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/tariq-ali-on-u-s-u-k-arming-israels-war-on-gaza-pakistan-protests-macrons-embrace-of-the-right/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/us-intervention-and-neoliberalism-aggravate-political-upheaval-in-bangladesh/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/us-intervention-and-neoliberalism-aggravate-political-upheaval-in-bangladesh/#respond Sat, 07 Sep 2024 14:40:36 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1271996 Weeks of student-led and often violent protests forced the resignation and exile on August 5 of Bangladesh’s prime minister Sheikh Hasina. Demonstrators were reacting to inflation, unemployment, governmental and banking corruption and a quota system that preferentially opens up government jobs to descendants of people participating in the national liberation struggle. Brutal police repression and [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/us-intervention-and-neoliberalism-aggravate-political-upheaval-in-bangladesh/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-bangladesh-be-another-egypt/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-bangladesh-be-another-egypt/#respond Sat, 24 Aug 2024 15:56:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1271292 The day after former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina left Dhaka, I was on the phone with a friend who had spent some time on the streets that day. He told me about the atmosphere in Dhaka, how people with little previous political experience had joined in the large protests alongside the students—who seemed to [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/will-bangladesh-be-another-egypt/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/accusations-of-us-regime-change-operations-in-pakistan-and-bangladesh-warrant-un-attention/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/accusations-of-us-regime-change-operations-in-pakistan-and-bangladesh-warrant-un-attention/#respond Fri, 23 Aug 2024 16:26:58 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1271220 Two former leaders of major South Asian countries have reportedly accused the United States of covert regime change operations to topple their governments. One of the leaders, former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, languishes in prison, on a perverse conviction that proves Khan’s assertion. The other leader, former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheik Hasina, fled to [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/accusations-of-us-regime-change-operations-in-pakistan-and-bangladesh-warrant-un-attention/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/economics-behind-the-fall-of-autocracy-in-bangladesh/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/economics-behind-the-fall-of-autocracy-in-bangladesh/#respond Sun, 18 Aug 2024 16:06:58 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1270998 Naheed Islam was not yet born in 1996, when prime minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh began her first term in office. In 2009, when she was elected to her second term, Islam had just turned 11. On August 5, he brought an abrupt end to Hasina’s 15-year long autocracy. The 26-year-old Islam, a sociology major [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/economics-behind-the-fall-of-autocracy-in-bangladesh/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-dream-is-to-reform-bangladesh-can-a-new-leader-steer-the-country-towards-democracy/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-dream-is-to-reform-bangladesh-can-a-new-leader-steer-the-country-towards-democracy/#respond Tue, 13 Aug 2024 16:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1270774 When Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled in the face of a mass uprising last week, a power vacuum was left in the 170 million-person country. After Hasina left the country, the army took over and swiftly established an interim government to steer Bangladesh towards free and fair elections within three months. Amid hopes for genuine societal reform, however, people [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-dream-is-to-reform-bangladesh-can-a-new-leader-steer-the-country-towards-democracy/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/new-dawn-in-bangladesh/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/new-dawn-in-bangladesh/#respond Sun, 11 Aug 2024 15:34:01 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1270667 We go to Dhaka for an update as Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus is sworn in to lead Bangladesh’s caretaker government just days after the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who resigned and fled the country amid a wave of student-led protests over inequality and corruption. Yunus is known as the “banker to [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/new-dawn-in-bangladesh/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/we-can-dump-friends-but-not-neighbours/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/we-can-dump-friends-but-not-neighbours/#respond Fri, 09 Aug 2024 16:31:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1270575 Here are some straightforward reasons why the Indian establishment of the day liked the Sheikh Hasina regime in Bangladesh. For the most part, it held the Islamist forces at bay, thus keeping Hindu minorities in safe-keeping, without asking questions about Hindutva forces and their doings in India. It pursued a model of economic development very [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/we-can-dump-friends-but-not-neighbours/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-conundrums-of-bangladeshi-politics/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-conundrums-of-bangladeshi-politics/#respond Thu, 08 Aug 2024 17:03:54 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1270546 On Monday, August 5, former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina boarded a Bangladesh Air Force C-130J military transport in a hurry and fled to Hindon Air Force base, outside Delhi. Her plane was refueled and reports said that she intended to fly on either to the United Kingdom (her niece, Tulip Siddiq is a minister in [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-conundrums-of-bangladeshi-politics/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/young-people-brought-down-bangladeshs-repressive-leader-will-they-now-be-empowered-to-lead-real-change/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/young-people-brought-down-bangladeshs-repressive-leader-will-they-now-be-empowered-to-lead-real-change/#respond Tue, 06 Aug 2024 16:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1270461 “Inni, we are independent!” my 26-year-old cousin chanted from Shahbagh, a neighbourhood in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka, as millions joined a major protest march on Monday to the country’s Parliament House. Soon after, social media was flooded with news of “a new independence” – a free Bangladesh reborn after the autocratic leader of over 15 years, Prime Minister [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/young-people-brought-down-bangladeshs-repressive-leader-will-they-now-be-empowered-to-lead-real-change/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bloody-july/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bloody-july/#respond Mon, 05 Aug 2024 15:27:06 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1270413 Speaking to journalists on 26 July, the Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina could not stop herself from weeping. She had spent fifteen years developing her nation, she said, and now the fruits of that development were being destroyed. Hasina was referring to a metro station in Mirpur – a shining symbol of the country’s plan [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/bloody-july/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/quota-reform-protests-in-bangladesh-a-call-to-end-violence-against-students/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/quota-reform-protests-in-bangladesh-a-call-to-end-violence-against-students/#respond Fri, 19 Jul 2024 16:45:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1269539 In recent years, no other protest has mobilized as many students. The widespread participation stems from the frustration of graduates who struggle to find jobs commensurate with their education. Compounding this issue are rampant corruption and irregularities in government job recruitment, fueling anger among students and graduates alike. Today’s youth face the paradox of jobless [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/quota-reform-protests-in-bangladesh-a-call-to-end-violence-against-students/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/remember-the-dead-fight-for-the-living/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/remember-the-dead-fight-for-the-living/#respond Sat, 13 Jan 2024 15:49:30 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1260687 Taslima Akhter, acting President and founder of Bangladesh Garment Worker Solidarity, reflects on garment workers’ struggles over the last decade, the specific challenges of NGO-ization and transnational solidarities, and the current situation in the readymade garment industry in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing economic crisis. She also tells us how Rana Plaza [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/remember-the-dead-fight-for-the-living/feed/ 0