Cover Story

A BIG LETDOWN?

Faced with a barrage of criticism over labour rights, this month the government has amended the country's labour law. But experts and labour leaders think the law might raise issues that it was supposed to solve. the Star takes a look at the law that experts and labour leaders think is a big let down.

ANANTA YUSUF

A dense cluster of shanty settlements stand in a sprawling line near Savar Bazaar. Hundreds of garment workers sleep on the floor, which is nothing but beaten mud. At least half of them used to work in Rana Plaza. Most…

Special Feature

Caught in the Quota Conundrum

Md Shahnawaz Khan

Dreams, Sufferance and Reality Ali Hosen, who has graduated from Dhaka University (DU)  a year ago, recalls his childhood memories that exemplify the eternal poverty ridden pastoral Bangladesh. With his father a landless farmer and mother, a day labourer, Ali…

Current Affairs

The Scapegoat

Awami League chief Shiekh Hasina should also be held responsible for the party's humiliating electoral defeat

Shakhawat Liton

On December 29, 2012, several thousand councillors were present at the Awami League’s council session at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh to elect the party’s new leadership including the chief, general secretary and other office bearers. They enthusiastically re-elected Sheikh…

Reflections

Reminiscing with a River

Andrew Eagle

O Mamoré, generous sustenance giver, tributary, great earthworm of a river: I see you from above, pushing off and pushing on, northwards flowing, northwards growing, like an uneven, winding hem across the landscape. I see you from the plane, ever…

Trends

Once You Shop, You Can’t Stop

Upashana Salam

Something awesome this way comes. The festive air, the joyous atmosphere, the excited anticipation; come on, Eid, get here already! While Eid will take its own sweet time to get here, the shopping frenzy has already begun and how! People…

Profile

Understanding Vastness

Amitava Kar

Admit it. You have no idea about the size of the solar system. That’s okay.  No one else does either. Even knowing the numbers doesn’t help much. If I tell you the Earth is about 8,000 miles in diameter and…

Art

A Master Craftsman’s Journey

Fayza Haq

It has been a long journey of experimenting and perfecting designs on the most coveted of handlooms, creating works of art that have taken the fashion scene by storm. Chandra Shekhar Shaha was one of those early designers who have…

Musings

Encounters of the Dark Kind

Syed Badrul Ahsan

Let us talk about Razakars today. And we need to do that because of all the nonsense Chowdhury Mueen Uddin has lately been spewing about a country he betrayed back in 1971. The man, accused of having led some leading…

Impressions

The Compulsive Veneration

Shah Husain Imam

The US Congress broke into a rapturous standing ovation to Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s as he had finished his address to a joint audience of Senate and House of Representatives last year. The applause went on for what seemed like…

Book Review

A Sylheti in Nineteenth Century London

Fakrul Alam

It was Michael H. Fisher’s 2004 book Counterflows to Colonialism that first alerted its readers to the history of people from the Indian subcontinent visiting or settling down in England as early as the seventeenth century. Improbable though it would…

Perceptions

Painting Coal Black

Tamanna Khan

A Taliban leader, Adnan Rasheed, recently wrote a letter to Malala Yousafzai not apologising for shooting an unarmed, female child in the head, but accusing her of a ‘smear campaign’ against them. They claimed Malala was tarnishing the Taliban’s image…

Human Rights

MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD

Amrita Talukder

Some nights before, I had a terrible nightmare. I saw a woman standing in front of a building located in the middle of an uninhabited deserted landscape. From her face, she looked frightened as if something ominous was about to…

Food for Thought

Stranger Than Fiction (By a Long Shot)

Farah Ghuznavi

They say that there is always something to be grateful for. Parents, teachers and students at a high school in San Mateo, California must certainly have thought so after a disturbed 17-year-old student’s plan to wreak havoc was unexpectedly thwarted.…

Periscope

The Way Out

Ahmede Hussain

Bangladesh is now standing at a crossroads. In fact, it stands now where it was before the 1/11 government took over in 2007. The country’s stability is precariously hanging in the balance and the chance of a peaceful handover of…

Perspectives

In Praise of the Selfies

Adnan R Amin

“You are – who you are when nobody is watching” goes the old adage and the reinvented quote. But in this day and age, we can seldom be ourselves. With the rise of social media, constant photographing, posting and oversharing…

Star Diary

Transport Dilemma The south-eastern part of Dhaka lacks low-cost public bus service. Rickshaws have been barred to ply over many busy roads. The auto-rickshaws are not affordable or easily available. The inhabitants of the area, from Bashabo to Tantibazar, have…

Voicebox

“There are very few African-American men in this country who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me.” BARACK OBAMA US President commenting on the acquittal of George Zimmerman, a…

Chintito

Clean faces, Clean Hands and Clean Minds

Chintito

I know MPs who are honest. You know MPs who repay their bank loans. We all know MPs who live their life with only white money. I have met MPs who obey the law. You have met MPs who respect…

Letters

Nature’s Flag Bearer It is a long, well researched and interesting article. Many of us lead a busy life and feel that we have to devote most of our energy to ‘practical’ things. However, articles like these help to remind…

The Conspiracy

Sharier

NOTHING TO LOSE BUT THEIR CHAINS

Postscript

It’s not just any Baby

AASHA MEHREEN AMIN

If you happened to turn on the news during Sehri time last Monday one thing that would take away the night’s sleepiness would be the breaking news of the day. It wasn’t another drone attack on an alleged Taliban stronghold…