Lawyer takes aim at fatwa violence in Bangladesh
Hena Akhter was 14 when she was whipped to death for allegedly having an affair with a married man. There was uproar in local and international media at the time of her death in 2011, followed by a fervent call to outlaw so-called fatwa violence in Bangladesh.
The high court ruled that Hena’s body should be exhumed to determine the extent of the violence to which the young girl was subjected. A second post-mortem examination found that she died of septicaemia due to severe internal injuries. The court ordered an investigation, which led to several arrests, including that of the Muslim cleric who issued the fatwa.
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Bangladesh 142nd on HDI Index
The Human Development Report 2015, released on Monday, put Bangladesh in the medium human development category with 142nd position out of 188 countries, territories.
Bangladesh’s HDI (Human Development Index) value for 2014 is 0.570, said the UNDP report - work for human development, reported news agency UNB.
The HDI is an average measure of basic human development achievements in a country. It is a summary measure for assessing long-term progress in three basic dimensions of human development - a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living.
BD economic success story excludes millions masses
Dressed in cheap, worn-out clothes, Farida Begum looks much older than her 30 years.
Her pale face is etched with worry as she sits in her tiny bamboo-fenced shack next to a railway track in Tejgaon slum, in central Dhaka.
The shack has been home for her three-member family for the past four years. It has electricity but no running water, while the local slumlord charges them 1,400 taka (US$18) a month for rent.
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Despite significant socioeconomic progress in the past decades, about ...
Despite significant socioeconomic progress in the past decades, about ...
Policy to end child marriage must in Bangladesh
Fifteen months after pledging to end child marriage in her country, Bangladesh’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, seems determined to lower the age of marriage in Bangladesh.
In July 2015, at the Girl Summit in London, United Kingdom, Sheikh Hasina announced plans to end child marriage under 15 in Bangladesh by 2021, and to end child marriage under 18 by 2041. These commitments were very welcome given the high rate of child marriage in Bangladesh: 29 percent of girls are married by age 15, the highest rate in the world. By age 18, when they should be graduating from high school, 65 percent of girls are married. A horrifying 
Sailing season fuels new smuggling fears
Abu Bakkar relied solely on the money he earned as an agricultural day laborer to pay for the expenses of his five-member family. It was rarely enough.
Like many of his neighbors, Bakkar, 33, a Muslim from the Chandanaish area of Bangladesh’s Chittagong district, was desperate for a better way of providing for his family. So in early May, he joined a group of 14 from his village to set off for Malaysia in search of better prospects.
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The coming end of the...
The coming end of the...
