Monday, March 8th, 2010 On the eve of 100th International Women's Day celebration, a group of men yesterday vowed to fight against acid violence, which makes many women's lives a misery.“As a man, I am ashamed that in over 95 percent cases it is a man who throws acid at women. It really hurts me. I swear to work so that no woman is burnt by acid anymore,” said singer Shuvro Dev at the rally of men against acid violence at Rabindra Sarobar in the city's Dhanmondi area.Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF) and the Bangla daily Prothom Alo jointly organised the event.International Women's Day ...
(read more) Thursday, March 4th, 2010 A number of Awami League and BNP lawmakers in parliament yesterday leaped out of their chairs and rushed towards each other gesturing aggressively throwing the sitting into chaos for around 10 minutes.Without microphones, the lawmakers, particularly the ones elected to reserved seats, were seen shouting loudly and exchanging extremely indecent and vulgar words on the floor, most of which are unprintable. The chaos erupted following derogatory remarks made against Father of the Nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and BNP founder late Ziaur Rahman.Later, Awami League lawmaker Tarana Halim on a point of order said the opposition lawmakers during the chaos ...
(read more) Thursday, October 29th, 2009 Speakers at a roundtable yesterday called for stronger linkage between sexual and reproductive health services and HIV programmes in the country to contain HIV and enhance the range of treatment, care and support.They said the significant cause of HIV infection is directly related to risky sexual behaviours, pregnancy, childbirth and lack of information.Considering limited resources in the country, planning, integration of existing settings and interventions with a common approach can meet broader health and social needs of people instead of providing services separately, the speakers pointed out.The roundtable on 'Linkage of Sexual and Reproductive Health in Prevention of HIV in ...
(read more) Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 Essential commodities, including edible soybean oil, onion, garlic and rice, are being smuggled into Myanmar through at least 23 border points of Teknaf and Ukhia upazilas in the district, sources concerned said.In exchange, banned tablet Yaba, narcotics, sexual stimulant and other items are coming into Bangladesh.Sources said about 180 smugglers in 25 syndicates are conducting the illegal trade of crores taka through the border points. Some commodities are recovered by the security forces but most of the goods are smuggled safely.The points include Nila, Natmora Para, Chowdhury Para, Leda, Jadimura, Domdomia, Wabrang, Moulvibazar, Hoaikhong, Kanjar Para, Minabazar, Jhimongkhali, Lomba Beel, ...
(read more) Friday, August 21st, 2009 Child pornography is on the rise in Bangladesh as 80 percent of the under eighteen-year-old girls involved in sex trade are forced to do so due to poverty, deception, trapping and torturing, said a seminar yesterday in the capital.Manusher Jonno Foundation organised the seminar to share their studies titled "Child in sex trade, a situation analysis" and "Child pornography, an exploratory study at Dhaka" at Jatiya Press Club.The findings revealed a major portion of both school going and out-of-school children are exposed to porno pictures in the form of poster and picture card and porn CDs.They are getting involved ...
(read more) Monday, August 10th, 2009 Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, which calls for establishing the rule of Islam through organised efforts, has strongly claimed that its charter has never had any clause that contradicts the country's constitution.But Jamaat's claim does not match with the landmark Supreme Court verdict that the constitution of the republic does not allow establishing any rule but the rule of law in the country.According to the verdict, the basic structural pillars of the country's constitution are sovereignty of people, supremacy of the constitution, democracy and secularism. It says none of these can be changed, even by amending the constitution."The structural pillars of the constitution ...
(read more) Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami has again refused to accept the plenary powers of parliament to make laws as it restored a controversial phrase in its ratified constitution, breaching its pledge not to revive it.Jamaat deleted the phrase that "people must not accept anyone except Allah as the law-making authority" from its constitution last October in the face of Election Commission's objection.The EC, which had asked all political parties to register with it prior to the ninth parliamentary polls, found that the phrase in Jamaat's constitution undermines parliament's power to make laws bestowed by the country's constitution, the supreme law of the land.So, ...
(read more) Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami submitted its 'reformed' constitution to the Election Commission (EC) yesterday claiming that it already has 20 to 25 percent women representations in all its committees.But in fact its two top most policymaking bodies -- the 51-member central working committee and 15-member central executive committee -- do not have a single woman member.The Daily Star obtained a copy of Jamaat's 'reformed' constitution submitted to the EC.According to a special note in the constitution, the two top forums of the party are supposed to have at least 10 and 4 women respectively.But lists of members of the two committees ...
(read more) Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami submitted its 'reformed' constitution to the Election Commission (EC) yesterday claiming that it already has 20 to 25 percent women representations in all its committees.But in fact its two top most policymaking bodies -- the 51-member central working committee and 15-member central executive committee -- do not have a single woman member.The Daily Star obtained a copy of Jamaat's 'reformed' constitution submitted to the EC.According to a special note in the constitution, the two top forums of the party are supposed to have at least 10 and 4 women respectively.But lists of members of the two committees ...
(read more) Monday, May 18th, 2009 The High Court yesterday declared illegal Jahangirnagar University authorities' decisions of exonerating drama and dramatics faculty member Sanowar Hossain Sunny from sexual harassment charges and suspending six students on charge of assaulting him.The HC bench of Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Quamrul Islam Siddiqui also directed the JU authorities to hold a fresh enquiry into the incident and take action against the alleged persons. The bench insists that neutral persons conduct the fresh enquiry in line with the HC's recent guidelines on sexual harassment.The same bench on May 14 upon a writ directed the authorities concerned to form a ...
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