How Did a Vaccine-Preventable Disease Become a National Crisis?

By Sabiha Zakir Bangladesh was supposed to close the measles chapter. Instead Bangladesh turned into a national crisis over measles. Since mid-March 2026, the country has been fighting an outbreak that has reached almost every district, filled paediatric wards past capacity, and killed more children in a single year than the disease has claimed in …

Child Marriage in Bangladesh: Persistent Harm, Weak Enforcement and the Need for Reform

“I was a science student and got GPA 5 in my SSC exam. But before SSC, my family forced me to marry at 15. After that my husband did not want me to study. Still I managed to get into college, first in science, but since he did not let me attend, I had to …

সেলিম আল দীন: বাংলা নাটকের স্বরূপসন্ধানী

বাংলা নাট্যসাহিত্যের ইতিহাসে সেলিম আল দীন (১৯৪৯-২০০৮) এক অনন্য নাম। তাকে রবীন্দ্রনাথ-পরবর্তী কালের বাংলা ভাষার অন্যতম শ্রেষ্ঠ নাট্যকার হিসেবে বিবেচনা করা যেতে পারে। এর কারণ শুধু তার নাটকের সংখ্যাগত প্রাচুর্য নয়, বরং তিনি বাংলা নাটকের ভাষা, আঙ্গিক ও দর্শনকে নতুন করে নির্মাণ করেছিলেন। তার সৃষ্টিশীলতা বাংলা নাটক কে এক অনন্য রূপ দিয়েছেন রবীন্দ্র পরবর্তী সময়ে। …

Zahir Raihan: An Unparalleled Figure in Literature, Cinema and Political Aesthetics

Abu Abdor Mohammad Zahirullah was born on 19 August 1935, in British India, in Majupur village of the present-day Sonagazi Upazila of Feni district. He was the third among eight siblings. His father, Mohammad Habibullah, was a teacher at the Calcutta Alia Madrasa, while his mother, Syeda Sufia Khatun, was a homemaker. The transformation from …

পৃথিবীটা একদিন বাউলের হবে

“পৃথিবীটা একদিন বাউলের হবে” শুধু একজন বাউলশিল্পীর স্বপ্ন নয়; এটি এমন এক পৃথিবীর কল্পনা, যেখানে মানুষকে ধর্ম, জাত, শ্রেণি কিংবা সম্পদের মাপকাঠিতে বিচার করা হবে না। যেখানে মানুষের সবচেয়ে বড় পরিচয় হবে তার মানবিক পরিচয়। শাহ আব্দুল করীম তার গান, দর্শন ও জীবনাচরণের মধ্য দিয়ে যে পৃথিবীর স্বপ্ন দেখেছেন, যে পৃথিবীর কথা আমাদের বুঝিয়েছেন, সেই …

The Adani Question Is Really a Question of Bangladesh’s Energy Sovereignty

When one unit of the Adani power plant in Jharkhand went offline this week, Bangladesh did not merely lose several hundred megawatts of electricity. Dhaka was reminded, once again, of a much larger problem; how much of the country’s energy security has come to depend on decisions, fuel supplies and infrastructure beyond its own borders. …

Bangladesh Is Creating More. Can Its Laws Protect What It Creates?

A photographer spends days getting the right shot. A designer may spend weeks developing a visual identity for a small business. A software developer can spend months building something that works. Once the work is finished, however, copying it can take seconds. That imbalance is at the heart of Bangladesh’s intellectual property problem. The country …

Pink for Protection, But What About Freedom?

Photo: Daily Sun For the past couple of decades, Bangladesh has slowly been becoming an increasingly difficult place to live for many of its citizens. Men, women, and children have all fallen victim to different forms of crime and suffering. However, women continue to occupy a major part of this list. From being harassed on …

The Law Exists. So Where Does Responsibility Go? 

On 14 August, 2026, nine workers lost their lives inside an LNG carrier at a Sitakunda shipbreaking yard after being exposed to toxic gas. One survivor, Mohammad Selim, told The Daily Star that if he had stayed inside for just 20 seconds longer, he wouldn’t have made it out. Some workers had masks on; others …

The Anatomy of a Quiet Street: What Peace Demands of Bangladesh

There is a deceptive calm in Bangladesh after every political imbroglio. Traffic flows steadily on Dhaka’s arteries, shopkeepers hoist open their shutters with renewed vigor, and the howl of public outrage that reverberated through the streets evaporates under the oppressive heat of the morning sun. To the untrained eye, it might seem like things have …