Published in The Daily Star | September 21, 2018 Private university student Sumon (not his real name) had already gone to bed when the police came to his bachelor pad, last month. The cops were on a “block raid”—a security exercise that Dhaka Metropolitan Police executed over several areas in the city in the aftermath … Continue reading When Digital Rights Become Human Rights
How Pandemics Should Not End
Published in Dhaka Tribune | May 13, 2020Photos by Mahmud Hossain Opu Dhaka’s streets are no longer empty. Shops are slowly reopening. There are rickshaws and cars. Traffic is beginning to pile on. Emerging out of a 43-day “lockdown”, some are calling the country’s guidelines in limiting public interactions a “new normal”. Most people, including … Continue reading How Pandemics Should Not End
Will Easing Social Distancing Save the Poor?
Published in Berkeley Public Policy Journal | April 22, 2020 Co-authored with Rifaiyat Mahbub Since the implementation of lockdowns in developing countries, debates have ensued on whether the poor will starve to death before the virus kills them. People are on the streets demanding the right to wages and food. In the US, a country with a much larger GDP … Continue reading Will Easing Social Distancing Save the Poor?
The Future of Digital is Human
Rafia dreads going to her phone carrier’s customer service center. Her commute to work at the local clinic is roughly forty minutes, while she spends at least an hour and half, inclusive of traffic, in a public bus to reach the nearest center. In addition to standing in the bus in sweltering Dhaka summer, longer … Continue reading The Future of Digital is Human
Inside Bangladesh’s Night of Terror
Published in Huffington Post | December 06, 2017 Minutes before, the upscale restaurant had been brimming with life. “I was waiting for my food when they walked inside—barely a year or two older than me, wearing jeans and t-shirts. Within minutes they pointed their weapons at us, killed the foreigners and took us hostage,” says … Continue reading Inside Bangladesh’s Night of Terror
The Weaker Sex
July 8, 2012 / The Daily Star It is no longer uncommon to read news or be victimized by eveteasing. Although the High Court passed a law in 2010 that labeled eveteasing as a sexual offense and committed the guilty party to jail or imposed a fine – the phenomenon has only gotten more rampant … Continue reading The Weaker Sex
Where have all the Projectors Gone
March 18, 2012 / The Daily Star As the floor mama insisted on switching off the multimedia projector, students were queuing in front of the computer, hurriedly plugging in their pen drives and copying the week’s lecture. I pushed past the queue in hopes of getting my USB drive plugged in – I had another … Continue reading Where have all the Projectors Gone
Liberating the Liberal Arts
August 5, 2012 / The Daily Star I come from a family of doctors. This isn’t the typical family where your parents are doctors and you think you know all about medical science. In my family, everyone you can possibly imagine as part of the extended family and beyond is a doctor. It goes to … Continue reading Liberating the Liberal Arts
Brave New World
September 16, 2012 / The Daily Star Mark Zuckerberg really messed things up for us. As one of the world’s youngest CEOs running the third largest ‘country’, he has given the rest of the world an impression that sitting in front of a computer can be the most profitable business one can fathom, and anyone … Continue reading Brave New World
Education 3.0
October 7, 2012 / The Daily Star I’ve always been gravely disappointed by the commuting infrastructure of Dhaka. Minus the traffic and heat, finding a CNG or a bus seat in itself is a challenge. For someone who lives far from both work and university, my mornings begin with worrying about how I can make … Continue reading Education 3.0
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