Pick of the week | The Daily Star

  • Commentary by Mahfuz Anam: A wake-up call for AL, for us all

    The ostensible reason for the recent protests was Indian PM Narendra Modi’s latest visit. The real reason was to signal that Hefajat-e-Islam (HI) under its new leadership was not the same party as it was under its former chief Shah Ahmad Shafi and his immediate followers and to announce that HI was ready to emerge as a new political force under the guise of protecting the majority faith.

  • The journey towards fighting corruption

    Debates on any global index and ranking where a country does not perform well are common almost everywhere.

  • Land grab and resistance in the Chimbuk hills

    The Mro community of the Chimbuk hills is passing days in great uncertainty.

  • The burning man, and our national addiction to violence

    Barely a month had passed since one of us wrote about rape, scopophilia and collective rage, and barely a day since we began an intergenerational dialogue on gender, rage and violence, full of hope at the emergence of passionate and resourceful young allies, when the world dutifully punched back.

  • Contra capital punishment even in this ‘rapedemic’

    The demand was predictable. Given the outrage that has been generated by the vicious acts of assault and dehumanisation that have been inflicted on women over some time, it even appears justifiable.

  • Jatiya Sangsad

    After 30 years of autocracy’s demise, democracy still remains a distant dream

    Article by Mahfuz Anam on the International Day of Democracy

  • PM’s ‘martial law’ comment reflects people’s deeply held belief

    The blunt statement on September 7 of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a virtual meeting with the Armed Forces Selection Board—that “we should exclude Martial Law from military lexicon”—was both surprising and refreshing.

  • Women’s access to stimulus packages and post Covid-19 gender equality

    All crises—natural disasters, wars, pandemics—affect different sections of people in different ways. Like any other crisis, Covid-19 has differing impacts on society.

  • The seemingly endless road to Palestinian sovereignty

    If empty statements could produce peace, the new Israel-UAE deal, brokered by US President Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, would be the beginning of the end of hostilities in the Middle East.

  • Deadly encounters

    In a rare instance in the long and not-so-glorious history of extra-judicial killings in Bangladesh, justice, it appears, is on its way to being served for the murder of Major (retd) Rashed Sinha.

  • Aziz Ahmed and Benazir Ahmed

    If it isn’t crossfire, what is it?

    We are heartened by reassurances from the chiefs of the Army and the police that there are no misunderstandings between the two agencies during a

  • The Art of Being Tajuddin Ahmad

    Nearly half a century after the 1971 War of Liberation, it is perhaps difficult to produce or come across startlingly original ideas about Tajuddin Ahmad.

  • The “Living Eagle” who beat the heavy odds!

    He departed rather unsung, his glorious past recalled in this country by only a few of his friends and admirers, limited to Facebook posts mainly.

  • ‘We have to strongly assert our rights now’

    In this instalment of The Daily Star’s interview series that aims to give readers an idea of what changes to expect in a post-Covid-19 world, Dr Shahdeen Malik, advocate at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, talks to Eresh Omar Jamal about the right to freedom of speech and expression and the limiting of human rights by governments.

  • How can Dhaka become more resilient to future pandemics?

    Cities have generally been the epicentres of the devastation caused by Covid-19, fuelling debates around the world on how to make cities more resilient against future pandemics.

  • Has anything changed after Nusrat?

    The horrific murder of Nusrat Jahan Rafi, a student of Sonagazi Islamia Senior Fazil Madrasa in Feni, had caused a massive outcry from the public and intensive media coverage.

  • Banani fire

    A Fire Next Door

    Before the amber of the last one turn to ashes and forgotten memories, a new flame leaps up in another neighbourhood of the city, revealing, once again, cracks in the façade of our tilottoma.

  • 'We should not use groundwater for the next 15/20 years'

    The depletion of groundwater table in Dhaka has made water crisis in the city acute, especially during the dry season. What are the reasons behind this?

  • 'There's an attack on all forms of intelligence' - Arundhati Roy

    "Ultimately, in the long run, whether we win or lose, we are not going to be on their side. So we might as well do what we have to do as well as we can."

  • Student movements and the culture of dissent

    After a long and agonising wait, we are finally going to witness the election of Dhaka University Central Students' Union (Ducsu) on March 11.

  • A 'new normal'?

    In its 48th year, Bangladesh faces a new existential question to ponder. What now passes as “normal”?

  • No, Chawkbazar fire won't be our 'wakeup call'

    Yet another tragedy has struck Bangladesh. Suddenly, everyone has woken up to the danger of chemical factories in Old Dhaka which this daily, along with other newspapers,

  • Rivers need more than a legal status

    Rivers are no longer just rivers bound only by the laws of nature. The High Court has recently given a verdict awarding the status of “living entities” to the country's rivers in a bid to protect them and raise awareness of their importance.

  • Urbanism for Dhaka

    An Urbanism for Dhaka

    A city is not mere buildings, streets and spaces; it is a theatre of social actions. And it is in that theatre, according to the American urbanist Lewis Mumford, that “man's more purposive activities…work out, through conflicting cooperative

  • The sins of our daughters

    Who among us, if we were parents of a daughter, would not want to protect her from the perils of our world? Who among us does not

  • Pratik's death and irregularities in the university recruitment process

    The recent case of suicide of Taifur Rahman Pratik, a student of Genetics Engineering and Biotechnology Department at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST), because of the alleged injustices done to him by his teachers,

  • Loan default increases because of bad management

    The new finance minister, Mustafa Kamal, has vowed to address the longstanding concerns regarding increasing non-performing loans in banks. Khondkar Ibrahim Khaled, a noted banker and former deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank, talks to The Daily Star's Nazmul Ahasan about the issue.

  • 'Real journalists act as agents of people, not power'

    John Pilger, as foreign correspondent, covered Bangladesh's Liberation War. His front-page report 'Death of a Nation' alerted the world to the life-and-death struggle of the Bengali people. In an exclusive (electronic) interview with Eresh Omar Jamal of The Daily Star, Pilger talks about his coverage of Bangladesh's Liberation War, the state of journalism today, and the current political shifts happening in the West.

  • Hefazat leader's plea: More than just a statement

    Shah Ahmed Shafi, head of the Hefazat-e-Islam (HI), is in the news again. In a sermon delivered to the parents of the Darul-Ulum

  • 'Strengthening democratic norms and culture is of vital importance'

    Prof Syed Manzoorul Islam, retired professor of Dhaka University, who currently teaches at ULAB, shares his impressions about the election with The Daily Star's Aasha Mehreen Amin.

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