Bangladesh: Islamists Attack Book Fair For Promoting Women’s Menstrual Hygiene – OpEd

Since Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took charge of an interim government in Bangladesh after the ouster of the Awami League regime , the country has witnessed a surge of radical Islamist activity. More than 250 Hindu and Buddhist temples, Christian churches and shrines of the Liberal Sufi Muslim saints have been vandalised and all institutions promoting liberal secular Bengali culture have been targeted. Even an annual fair organised in the memory of the legendary saint Lalon Fakir was closed down. 

Now the annual book fair in Dhaka, organised to observe the 1952 Bengali language movement in what was then undivided Pakistan,  has been targeted. And the Yunus government,  instead of clamping down on the Islamists have sought to appease them.

The Annual Book Fair is one of Bangladesh’s most cherished cultural events, where book lovers gather to celebrate Bengali heritage, intellectual freedom, and the power of ideas. However, under the rule of the Muhammad Yunus-led unelected government, the very essence of this festival is under attack as extremist forces tighten their grip on the nation.

After months of violence against religious minorities, radical groups have now turned their attention to the book fair itself. In a shocking display of extremist Islamist fascism, Islamist militants targeted a stall selling sanitary napkins, branding it “immoral” and demanding its removal. Instead of ensuring protection for the stall operators and upholding the rights of women and progressive entrepreneurs, Bangla Academy’s Director General, Professor Mohammad Azam, chose to appease the extremists, recommending that the stall belonging to the Pran-RFL group, be shut down.

Traditionally, the book fair has welcomed companies that support social progress, feminism, and health awareness. But under this regime, even essential healthcare products for women are being vilified in a disturbing push to erase progress in gender rights and public health awareness. The decision to dismantle the stall not only emboldens the radical forces but also signals the government’s complicity in dismantling Bangladesh’s hard-earned social advancements.

The alignment of the Yunus administration with the extremist agenda is no longer subtle—it is open and unapologetic. By siding with religious radicals instead of safeguarding free expression and women’s dignity, this government has shown that it is not only failing to protect its citizens but is actively enabling the spread of fundamentalism.

As Bangladesh slips further into the hands of militant Islamists, the question remains: How much more of Bangladesh’s heritage, rights, and freedoms will be sacrificed before the nation rises against this oppression?

In fact, many fear that thos year , the celebration of 21st February ( locally Ekushe February) may be a muted affair.  Bengalis remember the martyrs of the language movement who fell to police bullets on this day in 1952 . The Bengali language movement is seen as the starting point for the independence of Bangladesh from Islamist Pakistan. But under the Yunus regime, relations have sharply improved with Pakistan and there seems to be a conscious effort to play down the legacy of the Bengali language movement and the 1971 Liberation War that led to Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan.

More than 700 Islamist radicals have either been released from jails or forcibly freed much before their sentence ended, even as the administration has been a silent spectator. Islamic State flags have been noticed in rallies or during mob attacks on libraries and museum which showcase the legacy of the Liberation War. Earlier this month, the museum in the ancestral house of Bangladesh’s founder, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,  was bulldozed and destroyed. 

Many feel the Islamist groups who provide the muscle for Yunus’ interim government are creating an environment to transform Bangladesh into an Taliban type Islamist Republic.