“I hope the outcome [of the recent revolution in Bangladesh] would be different. I hope the end result will not be the same”, says Shireen Huq, women’s rights and human rights activist and Founder of Naripokkho organization, to IPS about the many similarities with the Arab Spring.
The recent revolution in Bangladesh that led to dismantling the autocratic ruling of Sheikh Hasina, many hundreds of young lives, including at least 32 children, were lost at the hands of the police and the auxiliary forces. According to a recent report conducted by the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commission, “There are strong indications, warranting further independent investigation, that the security forces used unnecessary and disproportionate force in their response to the situation.”
The Islamists (Muslim Brotherhood Party) came to power through parliament elections in the Muslim-majority Egypt in 2011 on the heels of the Arab Spring and got an elected president in 2012. The military came back staging a coup and re-seized power in the country in 2013 and put the current president as head of state. Could this scenario repeat in Bangladesh as well?
I spoke with Huq who believes that there is a real issue of religiosity among young people in Bangladesh. However, this would not necessarily lead to supporting fundamentalist forces. “We saw that the fundamentalist forces were active in the protest. It is uncertain at this time to what extent they will be able to navigate the situation and get some advantage out of it. Hopefully, the interim government will be able to maintain their hold on the situation and keep it in the right direction.”
Disappointment with leaving women out of the interim government
However, Huq is disappointed that women have not been represented in the interim government, although some discussions were held initially.
“The garment industry has been led by a majority of the female workforce. During this uprising and these protests, we saw hundreds and thousands of women on the streets. This has been also unprecedented as women will outnumber not only in numbers but also in energy, in force. Two young men have been taken [in the government] from the movement, so this is a little bit worrying. But I am not worried on the whole about women’s rights being further eroded. If anything, I am hopeful that women’s rights will be further advanced”, stated Shireen Huq.
In 2018, Huq and her organization, which consists mainly of feminists, many in their middle ages, developed a women’s manifesto that they are currently sending to all members of the interim government to set the expected priorities for women. “We have to wait and see. We have to give young women space to organize themselves the way they want. They will sort out how they want to build their own space, their own structures and their own organizations.”
Hundreds of thousands of female Bangladeshis took to the street during the recent uprising that dismantled the autocracy in the country. This is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License. Give attribution to: Rayhan9d
In her article titled “Living on Revolution Time”, Anne Alexander, Founder of MENA Solidarity Network, wrote that rulers “will always seek to tip the scales back, to restore their capacity to rule by any means they can. In a very real sense, therefore, “revolution time” is always borrowed time.”
The overthrown Awami league is a big political party in Bangladesh and has plenty of supporters including among the grassroots. They made a failed attempt for a comeback on the 15th of August, the date when the independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated in 1975.
First Reforms then Democracy
What the world saw in Bangladesh embodies the analysis of Martha C. Nussbaum in her book titled Anger and Forgiveness, “Awakening people to the injustice of society’s treatment of them is a necessary first step toward social progress… Sometimes the legal structure is itself unjust and corrupt. What people need to do is not just to secure justice for this or that particular wrong, but, ultimately, to change the legal order.” (p. 211, 212)
Social justice and reforms appear to occupy a primordial place on the youth agenda in Bangladesh, while democracy takes a back seat, for the time being. “Democracy is definitely one of the major goals, but it is not only democracy which is popularly understood as elections,” clarifies Huq. “What is on the agenda right now is ‘reforms’. The slogan from the streets is also ‘Reform of the State’ in every sector. The success of the interim government, to some extent, is to deliver on those reforms. Democracy is equality and justice in the real sense of the term. Social justice and democracy will go hand in hand.”
Student demonstrators held their ground rejecting calls for swift elections and voiced the planning of their own political party. No doubt there is a generational gap when it comes to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who was considered as the Father of the Nation. Youth don’t have any memory of previous times. “Hasina has used her father in every possible way,” says Huq. “I think it is my generation who is lamenting the inability of young people to make that separation, so they attacked his statues and his portraits which wasn’t probably necessary. There is a lot of pent up anger, not only about the autocracy of his daughter, but also about the misdeeds during her time.”
We are living in an era of acceleration around the world with the prevalence of technology and the pace of life. New generations seem to have lower inertia compared to previous generations and we are witnessing many youth revolutions. Huq thinks revolutions can be infectious. “I am not saying what is happening in Pakistan is because of Bangladesh, but it is interesting that it is happening in South Asia, and maybe we’ll see something happening in India as well, [it is] much-needed in India.”
Despite the great momentum of the revolution’s energy, Huq worries about India’s intervention and interference. “I think some warnings have been issued about that. If India really wants for Bangladesh to prosper and to do well, then the best thing it can do is to keep its hands off.”
Randa El Ozeir, is a Canadian-Lebanese journalist who writes on health issues, women’s rights and social justice.
