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The Women’s Movement in Bangladesh

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Over three decades ago, in 1988, March 8 was first observed in Bangladesh as International Women’s Day. The women’s movement has always been deeply rooted in this society. As we move from one era to another, we can trace overarching themes of eliminating violence against women, fighting for reproductive rights, striving for political and economic …

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Rape: A War Strategy

Leave a Comment / General / By admin

Rape and other forms of sexual violence have always existed as weapons of war. Documented evidence dating back to World War I shows use of sexual violence as a war strategy by Germany and other Axis powers. The Japanese Imperial Army was responsible for systematically forcing women from occupied territories, mainly Korea, into being sex …

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cholokothaboli

#cholokothaboli • feminist org fighting the culture of gender-based violence
📝 Education interventions
✨ Community building
🔅 Feminist discourse

Here is the Bangla version of our recent post : Tr

Here is the Bangla version of our recent post : Trigger Warning: anti-Hindu violence

If we only categorize Dr Lata Samaddar’s harassment for wearing a teep as an attack on women (which much of feminist discourse so far has done), we actively hide the fact that it was an act of anti-Hindu violence.

Kotha recognizes all these acts of violence as parts of a wider culture of anti-Hindu violence. We are always in solidarity with the Hindu community. We stand by you and commit to fighting alongside you

Trigger Warning: anti-Hindu violence If we only

Trigger Warning: anti-Hindu violence

If we only categorize Dr Lata Samaddar’s harassment for wearing a teep as an attack on women (which much of feminist discourse so far has done), we actively hide the fact that it was an act of anti-Hindu violence.

Kotha recognizes all these acts of violence as parts of a wider culture of anti-Hindu violence. We are always in solidarity with the Hindu community. We stand by you and commit to fighting alongside you.

With support from DW Akademie, Kotha and Bonhishik

With support from DW Akademie, Kotha and Bonhishikha will be holding sessions in 9 public universities all over Bangladesh regarding gender and its portrayal in the media. We believe that students are agents of change and through these sessions, they can bring much-needed reform to the way such things are portrayed in the media and societal mindsets!

❗️Our next session will be held at University of Jahangirnagar ❗️

Don't forget to sign up if we’re coming to your university!

With support from DW Akademie, Kotha and Bonhishik

With support from DW Akademie, Kotha and Bonhishikha will be holding sessions in 9 public universities all over Bangladesh regarding gender and its portrayal in the media. We believe that students are agents of change and through these sessions, they can bring much-needed reform to the way such things are portrayed in the media and societal mindsets!

❗️Our next session will be held at University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh❗️

Don't forget to sign up if we’re coming to your university!

With support from DW Akademie, Kotha and Bonhishik

With support from DW Akademie, Kotha and Bonhishikha will be holding sessions in 9 public universities all over Bangladesh regarding gender and its portrayal in the media. We believe that students are agents of change and through these sessions, they can bring much-needed reform to the way such things are portrayed in the media and societal mindsets!

❗️Our next session will be held at University of Rajshahi. ❗️

Don't forget to sign up if we’re coming to your university!

Kotha, with support from DW Akademie, is working o

Kotha, with support from DW Akademie, is working on a Standard Operating Procedure for media reporting on issues surrounding gender-based violence. As part of the project, the Kotha team organised a consultation with prominent journalists from across our most popular media houses, including Dhaka Tribune, The Business Standard, Channel I, Bangla Tribune, Ajker Patrika and Bhorer Kagoj. This was the first of a series of roundtables. As media plays an important role in shaping societal mindset, we believe in taking steps now to bring sustainable changes in our media practice - to stop victim-blaming and character assassination.

#cholokothaboli#dhaka#bangladesh#gender#bangladeshmedia

Happy International Women's Day! While everyone ap

Happy International Women's Day! While everyone appreciates the free gifts, we urge corporations to rethink whether free cake will solve gender inequalities.

#Repost @goethe_bangladesh ・・・ Kotha partne

#Repost @goethe_bangladesh
・・・
Kotha partnered with Goethe Institute and DW Akademie along with other partner organizations for the I Belong conference. With an aim to connect a tie between the existing network of feminists in Bangladesh with that of the younger generation, the DW Akademie and Goethe-Institut Bangladesh together organized a multimedia art exhibition and conference on Feminism titled ‘I Belong’ at the premises of DrikPath Bhaban in the capital’s Panthapath.

“Break the rules, smash the patriarchy, I belong too”- symbolizing these ongoing narratives around feminism with what has been done and what needs to be done, we felt the need for a conversation between the older generation who have fought for their rights and the younger generation of feminists who might have new demands. We all came together to offer a platform to understand their perspectives and their desire to contribute to the cause.” shares Kirsten Hackenbroch, Director of Goethe-Institut Bangladesh at the opening of the exhibition.

The first live panel focused on the history of women in Bangladesh and its media projection while the second panel attempted to examine the challenges around communication and portrayal of gender in the mainstream media, offering diverse perspectives on navigating through these challenges.

Through the intense dialogues between established feminists such as Khushi Kabir, Ferdous Azim, Hazera Begum, Taslima Akhter, Rahnuma Ahmed, Shireen Huq, Udisa Islam, Zafar Sobhan issues around the concepts of language used in mainstream media, citizen journalism, organized power structures, lack of portrayal of the struggles behind successful women were raised with young feminists such as Mayabee Arannya, Dalia Chakma, Tasaffy Hossain, Esha Aurora, Shakil Ahmed exploring the challenges around gender roles advertised in commercial media, lack of proper representation of indigenous people and stereotyping in the media. Moreover, the panelists offered solutions to facilitate changes by the representation of diverse voices in the mainstream media through an inclusive manner.

📣 New project alert With support from DW Akade

📣 New project alert

With support from DW Akademie, Kotha and Bonhishikha will be holding sessions in 9 public universities all over Bangladesh regarding gender and its portrayal in the media. We believe that students are agents of change and through these sessions, they can bring much-needed reform to the way such things are portrayed in the media and societal mindsets!

Our first session was held at University of Chittagong. Keep an eye out for where we go next. Don't forget to sign up if we are coming to your university!!

Congratulations to Mayabee Arannya, Community and

Congratulations to Mayabee Arannya, Community and Strategy Lead, Kotha for being selected as the Asia Foundation’s LeadNext Fellow from Bangladesh!

We are excited for all that you’ll learn and how you’ll bring those learnings to Kotha!

Read more at: https://asiafoundation.org/2022/01/10/the-asia-foundation-selects-inaugural-class-of-leadnext-fellows/

Our annual Kotha lunch and we are so happy so many

Our annual Kotha lunch and we are so happy so many members could come together #cholokothaboli #cholocakekati

Grateful for all that we learned and unlearned in

Grateful for all that we learned and unlearned in 2021. In 2022 we will continue to forge deeper friendships, build stronger community and remind ourselves that our fight is rooted in the immense love we have for each other.

Video by: @mxhxruba

#Repost @redfishstream Throwback to last year wh

#Repost @redfishstream

Throwback to last year when @cholokothaboli members @ahonaaa and @zahra_zillur along with many other protestors at the March For Freedom on November, 2020 were on @redfishstream alongside photos of feminist resistance around the world!
・・・
From Bangladesh to Mexico, women around the world took to the streets to protest against gender-based violence, including domestic violence, rape culture and femicide and to demand change on International Day Against Violence Against Women.

Photo 1: Dhaka, Bangladesh
Photo 2: San Salvador, El Salvador
Photo 3: Lima, Peru
Photo 4: Mexico City, Mexico
Photo 5: Bogota, Colombia

(Photos via Reuters)

@cholokothaboli at the FemGen Alliance (@rage.agai

@cholokothaboli at the FemGen Alliance (@rage.against.rape ) led protest in resistance of sexual oppression on November 25, 2021

We hope you will read this official statement from organizers:

Last year, we saw waves of anti-rape protests sweep across the nation. There was anger at reports of horrific rape cases and we took to the streets and our response was to call for protection of the women and girls of our country, to keep them safe.

We respond to violence faced by women and girls by trying to protect them. We pull them back, stop them from living normal lives, try to keep them home and tell them that that is how they will be safe from the dangers of the outside world. But who are we protecting them from? We know that violent men in our lives are not just mysterious strangers - they are our family, friends, relatives, teachers and colleagues. We know that women and girls are no safer at home than on the streets. We know that protection has never gotten us anywhere.

What are some of the ways we have tried to ‘protect’ women and girls?

We have married off 14 year old girls to middle aged men in the name of protection. We do not think about the emotional and physical trauma that a child bride has to experience. Child marriage is a form of violence against women and Bangladesh has the second highest number of child brides in the world. We have told women, they better stay home if they want to be safe. Yet 2 out of 3 women have faced some form of violence by their husbands and our laws still do not recognize rape by a husband as rape. In the name of protecting their and their family’s honor, we have told survivors of violence to not speak up. In the name of protection, we have told our women and girls to walk a certain way, dress a certain way, talk a certain way. And even after all that, when they have become victims of violence, we have told them it was their fault instead of pointing fingers at perpetrators and rapists. We have told women and girls to be as small, as quiet, as invisible as possible in order to be safe. In the name of protection.

Photo by: @dhakatribune and @thebusinessstandard

…(continued in comments)

To kick off The 16 Days of Activism against Gender

To kick off The 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, we want to remind you all to hold yourselves accountable. Ask yourself: are my actions contributing to rape culture? What can I do to actively avoid being part of the problem?

To help us answers these questions, we are resharing one of our most useful resources: the culture of violence pyramid. We recognize that gender based violence doesn’t exist in a vacuum. We don’t live in a world where all genders are treated equally and then every once in a while an extreme form of violence happens out of the blue. The system is propped up by everyday degradation and micro-aggression that are accepted as normal. Some of them may not seem to be immediately harmful or outright violent but it all contributes to the overall toxic culture.

The normalization part of the pyramid leads to Degradation which leads to Assault. Tolerance of the behaviours at the bottom supports or excuses those higher up. To prevent those explicit violence at the top, we must change the culture, starting from the bottom.

In case you were still a bit confused about what C

In case you were still a bit confused about what CSE actually is, here is everything you need to know. Find details about CSE and much more on the first chapter of our training manual, Peer Education 101: “For Us by Us”.

During our hands-on experience at Kotha At School

During our hands-on experience at Kotha At School we realised there is a lack of peer educator training in Bangladesh so we started researching and building our very own training manual “Peer education 101: For Us by Us” which can be used by any and every organisation to curate their own Peer Education program. Go through our post to read more about our thought process behind making the training manual!!

CHAPTER REVEAL of our Peer Education Training Manu

CHAPTER REVEAL of our Peer Education Training Manual,” Peer Education 101: For Us by Us”. Our own peer educators who’ve worked with over 500 students have created a comprehensive guide to start your own initiative to implement CSE. Take a look into what topics our manual covers in depth.

COVER REVEAL of our very own Peer Education Traini

COVER REVEAL of our very own Peer Education Training Manual, "Peer Education 101: For Us by Us" It has been one of our most exciting projects ever and we can’t wait to share more of it with everyone in the coming days!!

This training manual, a winner of the Share-Net International Small Grants, aims to popularize comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) in Bangladesh by helping anyone interested in CSE or SRHR education, especially youth-led organizations, expand their work. It combines Bangladesh-specific research findings with lessons learnt by youth organizations working in the field to create a Peer Education training manual that is the first of its kind in the country.

Our flagship program, Kotha at School, is Bangladesh’s first fully youth led CSE program. It is an institution based program that works through long term partnerships with schools to implement Kotha's 6-topic curriculum. Our curriculum has impacted over 500 students across different schools.

The hands-on experience we've gained through our work as Peer Educators has allowed us to create a training manual that can address challenges unique to our region. We've also made sure the manual contains conversational language and simplified explanations to make Peer Education accessible for the youth. We hope this manual will be the perfect solution to anyone wanting to start their own initiatives in peer education-led CSE or SRHR education!

Cover Art By: Raiaan Khan (@crinkledart)

#cholokothaboli #cse #trainingmanual #cseprogram #youth #unlearn #relearn #peereducation

Our very own Peer Education Training Manual, "Peer

Our very own Peer Education Training Manual, "Peer Education 101: For Us by Us" has been our most anticipated project and we are extremely delighted to finally share it with our audience!

This training manual, a winner of the Share-Net International Small Grants, aims to popularize comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) in Bangladesh by helping anyone interested in CSE or SRHR education, especially youth-led organizations, expand their work. It combines Bangladesh-specific research findings with lessons learnt by youth organizations working in the field to create a Peer Education training manual that is the first of its kind in the country.

Our flagship program, Kotha at School, is Bangladesh’s first fully youth led CSE program. It is an institution based program that works through long term partnerships with schools to implement Kotha's 6-topic curriculum. Our curriculum has impacted over 500 students across different schools.

The hands-on experience we've gained through our work as Peer Educators has allowed us to create a training manual that can address challenges unique to our region. We've also made sure the manual contains conversational language and simplified explanations to make Peer Education accessible for the youth. We hope this manual will be the perfect solution to anyone wanting to start their own initiatives in peer education-led CSE or SRHR education!

Video by: @mxhxruba

#cholokothaboli #cse #trainingmanual #cseprogram #youth #unlearn #relearn

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