From violence and harassment to the pursuit of simple pleasures like playing football or riding a bicycle, women in Bangladesh encounter innumerable obstacles. Here, those on the frontline of that struggle discuss the challenges they have faced and the hurdles that remain
Girls in Bangladesh talk their way out of forced marriage
All photographs by Muhammad Murtada/British Council
Continue reading...A project in Bangladesh’s Narsingdi district is one of several making inroads on women’s rights, despite a wider conservative backlash that has proved deadly
When Modina Begum heard that a 13-year-old girl in her village in central Bangladesh was about to be married off, she went straight to the girl’s parents and persuaded them to cancel the wedding, rescuing the teenager from a fate Begum herself had escaped.
“I convinced my parents to call off my own marriage, let me finish my studies and become self-reliant before getting married,” says Begum, now 19, as she leads a group of girls in English and digital skills at the Edge club in Narsingdi district, 50 kilometres north-east of the capital, Dhaka. “Now my parents have faith in me and I have the confidence to speak out for others.”
Continue reading...Nusrat Jahan Rafi was doused with kerosene and burned at her school, dying 10 days later of her injuries
A teenage Bangladeshi girl who reported being sexually harassed has died after being set on fire at school. Police and school authorities had ignored her complaints.
The murder of 19-year-old Nusrat Jahan Rafi, who was doused with kerosene and set on fire at her school in Feni on 6 April, followed her allegations of sexual harassment against her headteacher two weeks before. Nusrat suffered 80% burns to her body and died 10 days later from her injuries.
Continue reading...Exclusive: government’s own data shows no factory it inspects has eliminated high-risk safety hazards
Bangladesh’s government could assume responsibility for safety in workplaces producing clothing for major western brands this week despite demonstrating a “shocking level of unreadiness” to do so, according to an analysis of the state’s own data.
The country’s supreme court is scheduled to decide on Sunday whether to kick out the Bangladesh accord on building and fire safety, an international initiative to remove life-threatening hazards from factories that was put in place after the 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza complex in which more 1,100 people died.
Continue reading...Authorities say complex had no fire-protected staircases and top floors were illegally constructed
Police in Bangladesh’s capital arrested two of the owners of a commercial complex that caught fire last week, killing 26 people and injuring about 70, an official said.
Deputy police commissioner Shahjahan Shaju said early on Sunday that they arrested FR Tower’s owners Tasvir-ul-Islam and SMHI Faruque in Dhaka after police charged them with negligence and violations of a building code that resulted in casualties. In cases where deaths occur as a result of negligence, defendants also usually face culpable homicide charges.
Continue reading...At least 19 people killed, say officials, including six who jumped from 22-floor building
Desperate workers have jumped to their deaths as a huge fire tore through a Dhaka office block, killing at least 19 people and trapping others in the latest major inferno to hit the Bangladesh capital.
Rescue workers warned the death toll could rise sharply as fire fighters recovered charred bodies from the complex where an unknown number of office workers were engulfed by intense smoke and flames.
Continue reading...A huge fire has torn through a 19-storey office building in the commercial area of Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, prompting some people to climb down the exterior of the building. People were seen shouting for help from windows, with many office workers feared to be trapped inside
Continue reading...At its best, social work can break cycles of crisis, and help people change their lives and communities
Too often, social services are designed as rotating doors. They focus on individuals in crisis who, when the symptoms of the emergency have eased, are sent directly back to the stressful situation that caused all the damage – a painful, costly and tragic cycle.
There is little focus in formal social services on helping people to transform their environments to provide ongoing support and love, let alone engaging people to become advocates for their rights. Yet outside these limitations, social workers are supporting connections in communities designed to last people’s whole lifetimes. In many countries we call it “working beyond services”. There are countless examples around the world.
Continue reading...Analysis of air pollution data finds that 64% of cities globally exceed WHO guidelines
Twenty-two of the world’s 30 worst cities for air pollution are in India, according to a new report, with Delhi again ranked the world’s most polluted capital.
The Greenpeace and AirVisual analysis of air pollution readings from 3,000 cities around the world found that 64% exceed the World Health Organization’s annual exposure guideline for PM2.5 fine particulate matter – tiny airborne particles, about a 40th of the width of a human hair, that are linked to a wide range of health problems.
Continue reading...Iran reforms drive 90% fall in death penalty worldwide, but report warns hardline approach to minor cases violates human rights
Global efforts to abolish the death penalty are in danger of being undermined by anti-drug governments that use capital punishment to enforce a zero-tolerance approach, experts have warned.
The caution comes even though the number of people sentenced to death for drug offences around the world has actually fallen by nearly 90% over the past four years, according to a study by Harm Reduction International, with 91 known deaths last year compared with 755 in 2015.
Continue reading...Over 100 workers claim to have been sacked after protesting about low wages at factory that makes ‘girl power’ T-shirts
Charity “girl power” T-shirts sold in the UK are made at a Bangladeshi factory where more than 100 impoverished workers claim to have been sacked after striking in protest at low wages, it can be revealed.
The £28 garments are sold online by F=, which claims to be “all about inspiring and empowering girls”, with £10 from each T-shirt donated to Worldreader, a charity that supplies digital books to poverty-stricken children in Africa. Television presenter Holly Willoughby recently reposted a 2017 picture of her and Spice Girl Emma Bunton wearing the T-shirts.
Continue reading...Women in Bangladesh and Vietnam working for Big W, Kmart, Target and Cotton On earning 51 cents an hour
Women in Bangladesh and Vietnam making clothes for the $23bn Australian fashion industry are going hungry because of wages as low as 51 cents an hour, an Oxfam report has found.
The aid group interviewed 470 garment workers employed at factories supplying brands such as Big W, Kmart, Target and Cotton On, and found 100% of surveyed workers in Bangladesh and 74% in Vietnam could not make ends meet.
Continue reading...Police warn death toll may rise in ‘highly combustable’ blaze in old part of Bangladesh capital
At least 69 people have died in a huge fire that tore through apartment buildings also used as chemical warehouses in an old part of the Bangladeshi capita.
Dozens of people were trapped in the buildings, unable to escape onto narrow streets clogged with traffic, as the highly-combustible stores of chemicals, body sprays and plastic granules erupted in flames.
Continue reading...Country at odds with UK over decision to strip 19-year-old of British citizenship
Shamima Begum is not a Bangladeshi citizen and there is “no question” of her being allowed into Bangladesh, the country’s ministry of foreign affairs has insisted, setting up a clash with the UK after Sajid Javid’s move to strip the teenager of her UK citizenship.
“The government of Bangladesh is deeply concerned that [Begum] has been erroneously identified as a holder of dual citizenship,” Shahriar Alam, the state minister of foreign affairs, said in a statement issued to the Guardian, adding that his government had learned of Britain’s intention to cancel her citizenship rights from media reports.
Continue reading...The woman was robbed and told if she protested she would be ‘killed and put in box’
A Bangladeshi factory that produces clothes for Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Mothercare was forced to compensate an “outspoken” female worker after she was beaten up on the orders of management and threatened with being murdered, the Guardian has learned.
The woman claimed to have been “severely beaten up” by security guards and the HR and compliance management at the factory, which is used by the brand Stanley/Stella. She said she was robbed of her severance pay and told that if she protested she would be “killed and her body put in a cardboard box”, an industry watchdog report that endorses her account states.
Continue reading...Workers producing tops sold to raise money for Comic Relief receive far below a living wage
Spice Girls T-shirts sold to raise money for Comic Relief’s “gender justice” campaign were made at a factory in Bangladesh where women earn the equivalent of 35p an hour during shifts in which they claim to be verbally abused and harassed, a Guardian investigation has found.
The charity tops, bearing the message “#IWannaBeASpiceGirl”, were produced by mostly female machinists who said they were forced to work up to 16 hours a day and called “daughters of prostitutes” by managers for not hitting targets.
Continue reading...Staff at Bangladesh plant tell of fainting and abuse while sewing charity tops designed by group
Salma has never even heard of the Spice Girls. Her life, hunched over a sewing machine for up to 16 hours a day, is a world away from the luxuries enjoyed by the millionaire pop band.
But while neither knows it, Salma and the Spice Girls are connected. The factory where she has worked for more than five years, off a narrow, winding road three hours’ drive from Dhaka, is where charity T-shirts designed by the group were made.
Continue reading...Dozens of factories have closed after more than a week of protests in which one person has died
Thousands of garment workers in Bangladesh who make clothes for top global brands have clashed with police as strike action over low wages entered a second week.
Police said water cannon and tear gas were fired on Sunday to disperse huge crowds of striking factory workers in Savar, a garment hub just outside the capital, Dhaka.
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