Zyma Islam

Doyasona Chakma and Monti Chakma returned just as mysteriously as they disappeared. The two women, both of whom are core elected members of the Hill Women's Federation, were dropped off by their abductors after a month of being held captive.

Her Facebook inbox is now flooded with rape threats. One sender called her a pig and said she should've been raped when she was still a baby in her mother's lap. Another, a Bangladesh Chhatra League member of Sreepur named Shajib Hassan, insinuated that she should sell herself to men. Yet another BCL man from Sylhet called Abu Taher Juned asked her whether she would have sex with him for Tk 200-250. A Qatar-based BCL man called Syed Shupon Augustia Mizan threatened to rape her mother. A Jubo League member from Companiganj called Main Uddin Ujjol threatened to rape her.

Last Thursday, a Dhaka-based organisation working with conservation of heritage posted urgently on Facebook about an unfortunate development unfolding in Lakhsmibazaar. “We just got to know today that the century-old beautiful building in Nobodwip Basak lane number 3 will be broken down on April 16. The contractor hired to do the job has already moved into the property,” the post by Urban Study Group (USG) states. Attached is an image of a home, the architecture of which is one of a kind and very rarely seen nowadays. The front facade has the atypical arches of the past

People have been talking about it from the beginning of the year, and whispering about it for longer—private banks are going through a liquidity crisis. There is not enough money in hand to make the rounds, and the extent of the problem came to light last week when the government had to intervene to help them deal with the crunch.

The content of the newspaper stand at 73 Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights, a neighbourhood in New York City, is a mirror reflection of one halfway across the world anywhere in Dhaka. In place of the usual NYC newsstand fare, the New York Post or any of the other local tabloids, these stands proudly display an array of newspapers in Bangla.

The puppet show starts with a group rehearsing “Aguner Poroshmoni” for Noboborsho celebrations. Safat stands aside, not participating. Turns out Safat has been getting flak from his father for “wasting” time with music. The scene shifts to the landlord of the building walking in on them and telling them that cultural activities are not important. In the middle of all this, Safat is befriended by a guy who later on in

"Which university do you want to go to?” I wrote down on a notebook. She circled the word “university” and weakly asked in a shaky voice that barely rose above a whisper: “What does this word mean?” Maisha will be graduating tenth grade in less than a year from a reputable institution in the city, but her performance at school lags behind her peers'—as can be seen from the absence of the word “university” from her vocabulary.

Late January news broke that big data sourced from the fitness devices was unwittingly giving away the aerial locations of secret US Army bases in places like Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Even the biggest private hospitals inside the city have no centralised record-keeping system through which a patient's past history can be accessed.

That children from the slums of Dhaka have an unequal start in life is not a revelation. Sanitation systems are poor or non-existent, poverty affects nutrition levels, and access to advanced health care is limited.

Since its announcement, the Rampal power plant has ignited intense debates. The involvement of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), the Indian company financing it, has been discussed at length.

I am writing this story sitting in Haluaghat in the district of Mymensingh. It is pretty much on the same latitude as say, Tahirpur in Sunamganj. With the rolling hills of Meghalaya being just a stone's throw away, there are many similarities between the two. It would take six hours by car to reach one from the other.

How many families are displaced due to industrial development in Bangladesh? Ask someone from the Matarbari island of Moheshkhali and he will be able to give an approximation of how many families have been ripped apart in his

Over the last month Star Weekend surveyed and interviewed 300 people to find the answer to this question: why do child sexual abuse cases not get reported, and what can be done to rectify it? The respondents included social workers who deal with these cases, lawyers, eye-witnesses and 195 child sexual assault survivors themselves.

Hearing stories that are not heard otherwise

"I was so happy when I saw the madam of the house, I told her I'd do whatever she asked of me,” described Moyna. “She took me to a room and asked me if I wanted to shower after my long flight from Bangladesh.” Moyna said yes.

"How many of you are going to turn up if we do clean-up activities around the Buriganga river?" a panel speaker asked a room of

Quite out of the public eye, a health organisation has been routinely sending experts to manage the diarrhoea and cholera epidemics that break out in conflict zones.

A group of undocumented Bangladeshi-Americans are in a fix but there is no talk of it in their country of origin.

What is it like spending the formative early years in one of the most overcrowded prison systems in the world? What protections are there in place to ensure they develop like any other child?