Kaberi Gayen | |
---|---|
কাবেরী গায়েন | |
Born | Barisal, East Pakistan, Pakistan |
Alma mater | University of Dhaka (BA, MA) Edinburgh Napier University (PhD) |
Occupation | academic |
Years active | 1994 - present |
Known for | Social activism |
Notable work | Muktijuddher Cholochchitre Naree Nirman |
Kaberi Gayen is a Bangladeshi academic, author, and social activist known for her outspoken views on the oppression of minorities and gender inequality in Bangladesh. [1]
She is a professor of the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism at the University of Dhaka, as well as a visiting lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University, United Kingdom. [2]
Gayen was born in a Bengali Kayastha family in Gopalganj, Bangladesh. She did her schooling from Barisal Government Women's College, and travelled to Dhaka in 1989 to obtain an honours degree in mass communication and journalism from the University of Dhaka - for which she was awarded the Dil Noshin Khanam Gold Medal. She then completed her master's from the same university in 1990, thereafter travelling to Edinburgh to obtain a PhD from Edinburgh Napier University in 2004. Her thesis was on Modelling the Influence of Communications on Fertility Behaviour of Women in Rural Bangladesh.
Gayen is a full-time professor at the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism of University of Dhaka. She is also visiting lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University, United Kingdom. [2] She is a member of the International Network for Social Network Analysis and Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, as well as a columnist for various national newspapers, including the Bangladeshi English-language newspapers The Daily Star and Prothom Alo . She was awarded the European Union grant in 2004, to work on the "Social Network of Older Workers". In 2011, she received the prestigious Royal Society of Edinburgh grant, and was subsequently invited to present lectures at Dundee University and Edinburgh University. [3] Johannes Karl Mühl, the German academic from Hochschule Furtwangen University, credited her with helping him write his book "Organizational Trust: Measurement, Impact, and the Role of Management Accountants". [4]
Gayen is a vocal human rights activist who has spoken for the rights of the Hindu, Christian, and Atheist minorities, such as the atheist blogger Asif Mohiuddin. She has campaigned for justice in the Bangladeshi Judiciary, and is vocal against religious extremism and government oppression. [5] [6] [7] She has supported The International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh. [8] She has protested against the arrest of Labour rights activists and spoken against the issues of gender-inequality and sexual assault prevalent in the Bangladeshi society. [9] [10]
She was one of the ten people who received death threats from Islamist terrorists Ansarullah Bangla Team. The List included HT Imam - advisor to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Vice-Chancellor of Dhaka University, and Professor Muhammed Zafar Iqbal. The Militant group had also admitted to the murder of blogger Avijit Roy. [11]
Shahidul Alam is a Bangladeshi media institution builder, a photojournalist, public speaker, storyteller, writer, blogger, curator, and educationist.
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On 5 February 2013, protests ignited in Shahbagh, Bangladesh, fueled by the call for the execution of the convicted war criminal Abdul Quader Mollah. Previously sentenced to life imprisonment, Mollah was convicted on five of six counts of war crimes by the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh. Mollah supported the West Pakistan during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War and played a crucial role in the murder of numerous Bengali nationalists and intellectuals. The demonstrations also sought the government's ban on the radical right-wing and conservative-Islamist group, Jamaat-e-Islami from participating in politics, including elections, and a boycott of institutions supporting or affiliated with the group.
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Avijit Roy was a Bangladeshi-American engineer, online activist, writer, and blogger known for creating and administrating the Mukto-Mona, an Internet blogging community for Bangladeshi freethinkers, rationalists, skeptics, atheists, and humanists. Roy was an advocate of free expression in Bangladesh and coordinated international protests against government censorship and imprisonment of atheist bloggers. He was killed by machete-wielding assailants in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on 26 February 2015; the Islamic militant organization Ansarullah Bangla Team claimed responsibility for the attack.
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Nadia Sharmeen is a Bangladeshi journalist. In 2015, she won the US State Department's International Women of Courage Award.
Attacks by Islamist extremists in Bangladesh took place during a period of turbulence in Bangladesh between 2013 and 2016 when a number of secularist and atheist writers, bloggers, and publishers in Bangladesh; foreigners; homosexuals; and religious minorities such as Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and Ahmadis who were seen as having offended Islam and Muhammad were attacked in retaliation, with many killed by Muslim extremists. By 2 July 2016, a total of 48 people, including 20 foreign nationals, had been killed in such attacks. These attacks were largely blamed on extremist groups such as Ansarullah Bangla Team and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The Bangladeshi government was criticized for its response to the attacks, which included charging and jailing some of the secularist bloggers for allegedly defaming some religious groups; or hurting the religious sentiments of different religious groups; or urging the bloggers to flee overseas. This strategy was seen by some as pandering to hard line elements within Bangladesh's Muslim majority population. About 89% of the population in Bangladesh is Sunni Muslim. The government's eventual crackdown in June 2016 was also criticized for its heavy-handedness, as more than 11,000 people were arrested in a little more than a week.
Mukto-Mona is a Bengali language blog for secularists, atheists, and freethinkers. It was founded by Avijit Roy who was subsequently killed by militants in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The attackers are believed to be members of Ansarullah Bangla Team.
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Muhammad Jasimuddin Rahmani, also known as Mufti Jasimuddin Rahmani is a Salafi-leaning radical imam from Bangladesh. He was the imam of Hatembagh Jame Masjid in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Jasimusdun Rahmani, a radical extremist, is the chief of an Al-Qaeda affiliated, terrorist organization Ansarullah Bangla Team. He was in custody in Bangladesh charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act. He supported the murder of atheist bloggers.
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Golam Rahman is an educationist, media researcher and communication expert of Bangladesh. He has served as the Chief Information Commissioner of the Information Commission of Government of Bangladesh. He also served as the chairman of Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) the chairman of the department of mass communication and journalism of University of Dhaka as well as head of journalism department of Daffodil International University. He is the editor of Bengali daily Ajker Patrika.
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Samina Luthfa also known as Samina Luthfa Netra is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Dhaka and a social activist. Luthfa employs qualitative and mixed-method research, primarily concentrating on South Asia. She also the central committee member of University Teachers' Network, Bangladesh.