Islamists physically attacked and abused women, snatched their phones, looted their money

Female journalists were physically attacked by the Islamists in Bangladesh. Nadia Sharmin, a TV journalist is admitted to hospital.

The Hifazat-e Islam not only barred women from entering its rally in the capital on Saturday, but also harassed physically and mentally several female journalists performing their professional duties there.

Activists of the Chittagong-based radical Islamist group assaulted Ekushey Television Reporter Nadia Sharmin at Bijoynagar and interrupted Financial Express Reporter Arafat Ara at Paltan when she was going to office.

On Friday, Mohona TV Chief Reporter Sumi Khan faced obstruction from the Hifazat activists in Chittagong.

Female journalists were not alone to face the Hifazat harassment, even the women garbage collectors were driven out from the rally area.

Leaders of the group demanded imposition of restrictions on open movement of male and female together, from the rally organised in Motijheel to press for their demands, including action against ‘atheists’.

Nadia Sharmin told bdnews24.com that she was attacked around 3pm when she went to cover the rally.

“Some Hifazat activists came to me and told me that admission of women to the rally is not allowed. They said, ‘You resort to falsehood. You’re the agents of Ganajagaran Mancha.’ At one point of the conversation they assaulted me. I took shelter in a car nearby and then they even tried to vandalise the car,” she said.

Later, several journalists tried to take Nadia to Bijoynagar where she was attacked again.

“Fifty-sixty activists hurled brickbats and water bottles at me at Bijoynagar. They snatched my mobile phone and handbag having several thousand takas. Then they threw me on the ground and beat me up,” she said.

Injured in the head, left side of the neck and leg, Nadia was sent to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital for treatment.

She said she was attacked only for being a woman.

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I am not surprised that women are attacked by the Islamists. They hate women, because their god and prophet hate women.

Bangladesh has potential to be worse than Pakistan.

We were so happy to have witnessed the wonderful secular movement at Shahbagh in February, 2013.
How many of us knew that Islamists could make 100 times or 1000 times bigger crowds than secular crowds?
We should have no doubt that Bangladesh is a purely Islamic country and it is going to be a purely Islamic fundaentalist country.
The country is full of Islamists. The biggest Islamist is the government, no matter who it is, Ziaur or Hasina or Khaleda or Ershad or Army!

They all help monsters to be born and monsters to grow. Now we witness the monsters occupying Bangladesh, once a secular country.
Bangladesh can be worse than Pakistan. The world keeps an eye on Pakistan. US drone attacks are there. The country has often been ruled by educated secular people. But Bangladesh remains in the dark backyard. Not so many countries are interested in Bangladesh, one of the poorest and most corrupt countries in the world. The rulers are uneducated idiots, Islamist morons and the patronizers of Islamic fanatics. Slowly it is becoming the worst Islamist country in the world. Wait and watch.

Look at them. Several hundred thousand people gathered to hang people who criticized Islam. It happened yesterday.

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Be New Atheists

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Like everyone I was born an atheist. I didn’t know that I was an atheist until the early ’70s.
I have been slapped, punched, kicked, harassed, assaulted, abused, banned, banished and threatened with death, but I never shut my mouth.
Don’t shut your mouth. Question everything. Protest against lies and superstitions. Fight dogmas. Don’t let the ignorant faith-heads ruin our world.
Be atheists, new atheists.

Freethinkers unite!

Mukto Mona freethinkers, a group of Bengali atheists, issued a statement: Bangladesh government squishing freedom of speech by arresting and harassing young bloggers inside the country

We are drawing your attention to an ominous development that is taking place right now in Bangladesh. To appease a handful of radical islamist preachers, the government has embarked on a campaign to curtail freedom of speech. To this effect, the police under government dictate have arrested three bloggers (Subrata Adhikari Shuvo, Mashiur Rahman Biplob and Rasel Parvez) in Dhaka, and then several others including one popular atheist blogger, Asif Mohiuddin in the following day. They were interrogated by police and further remanded in custody for seven more days. Torture in police custody is commonplace in Bangladesh for the detainees, often to extract incriminating statements. This time, several hapless bloggers are at the receiving end of government’s wrath. The government claims that these young bloggers have offended Islam and Muhammad, Islam’s holy prophet. It is worth noting that Bangladesh has no blasphemy law and the nation’s constitution allows the “freedom of thought, conscience and expression” as a fundamental right. In the aftermath of a popular protest in February and March 2013 known as Shahbag Movement, which was organized by bloggers and cyber writers, a section of Islamists have waged a disinformation campaign to label the bloggers ‘atheists’. The government is now trying to appease these Islamists. The government has made a list of nearly 100 bloggers and cyber forum participants who they labeled atheists and defamers of Islam. Through interview given to popular press, a spokesperson for the government has announced that the government will arrest and prosecute these “errant” bloggers. Although there is no law against atheism in Bangladesh, the government is persecuting these bloggers on charges of offending Islam and its Prophet. The government has already blocked a few popular websites to curtail free flow of information and promises to do even more to appease the Islamists. Since the constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh ensures freedom of speech and expression [article 39 (1, 2) of chapter-3], we believe Bangladesh Government’s heinous action against the popular bloggers is unconstitutional and a gross violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, which clearly states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression”).

We urge you to look into this serious matter and join with us in expressing grave concern so that bloggers and writers are not harassed and persecuted by state machinery because of the views they hold on religion and other such matters. The government has taken this easy route to appease a handful of rouge Mullahs whose support they need to win the upcoming election. We hope you understand the gravity of the situation which is worsening by the day.

Political parties in Bangladesh do not hesitate to kill people and destroy the country in order of remain in power. They appease Islamic fundamentalists for votes. This can’t be a democracy. A group of hypocrites will leave, another group of hypocrites will come. It has been happening for ages. It is time to stop electing hypocrites. The problem is, every politician is a hypocrite.

Fanatics and fascists are united. Freethinkers are not. Freethinkers almost always let fanatics and fascists go unopposed.

Will they protest now to save Bangladesh from being completely ruined and Islamized?

An atheist, who was brutally stabbed by the Islamists, is now arrested by the government.

The present government of Bangladesh is called ‘secular’.
People who do not know the meaning of secular call this government ‘secular’.

Asif Mohiuddin was brutally stabbed by the Islamists. Now the government arrested him for the crime of being an atheist.

His blog was banned by the government a few days ago.

His yesterday’s facebook message was:

Yesterday 3 bloggers of Bangla blog community have been arrested for not believing in any organized religion and for criticizing of the religious fundamentalism, religious institutions and religious Dogmas. Few days back, 84 freethinker bloggers were listed by some religious fundamentalist groups named ‘Hefajat e Islam” and the list was submitted to the government to arrest them and to impose Blasphemy law on them. I’m one of the listed bloggers, and In January, I was stabbed brutally by some Al-Qaeda terrorist group in Dhaka. And after one month, Blogger Rajib Haidar was slaughtered by the same group. Now our co called secular government are doing the rest of the job. May be they will arrest me today or tomorrow morning.

There was a time in the 17-18th century in Europe when women who excelled in knowledge, science and philosophy more than men were blamed for witchcraft and were burned alive by the churches and their theocratic government. Education and thus advancement for women has always been a threat for radicalism so this is why the church and the government indulged in burning the progressive women by branding them as witches.

The exact same situation is in Bangladesh right now. The whole new generation who brought in a revolution in Bangla blog community with their advancement in science, philosophy and critical mind, who wrote against the religious fundamentalism and in favor of our great liberation war, freedom of speech, secularism and democracy will be burned alive just like witch-hunt in the late middle ages.

Religious sentiments are so easy to be offended, that sentiment is always ready to be hurt. Religious fundamentalist always search google, facebook and youtube for the contents that hurts their sentiment and always cry to stop those Blasphemy! I don’t know who told them to search those things and hurt themselves! This is so ridiculous and nonsense.

Religious feelings can be hurt in a number of ways. The mass slaughter of cows at Muslim ‘Qurbani’ festivals may be offensive for the Hindus who worship the Cows as gods. Similarly, public worship of idols, celebrating the Bangla New Year and giving flowers at the Shahid Minar in a Muslim-dominated country can offend a true follower of Islam because all of the cultures are forbidden in Islam. Moreover, followers of other religion might not accept or feel insulted when someone says that ‘Islam is the best religion in the world’, or it might hurt Muslims when a Hindu person claims that all humans are born as Hindus. So as a matter of fact, if you want to prohibit the criticism on religion, you have to prohibit the statements that go in favor of the religion also.

The general people who take religion as a part of humanism, aren’t really interested in such propaganda that relates to religious ignominy but when things like these are used in political deceptive maneuvers, they make people believe that their own religion is endangered and to protect it they have to take part in war, murder, rape and what not. This was exactly how the genocide of 1971 was planned in Bangladesh, in the name of Islam, Pakistan army killed 3000000 of our people and raped more than 200000 women.

So Insulting religion is obviously a political issue, political leaders just want to use religions for their dirty politics and to save the religion, they want middle aged laws to be imposed and to promote religion based education system which is not compatible with modern age. The listed bloggers were solely doing the right job to separate religion from politics and the state. When religion remains out of the politics which gets dirty at times, it will remain sacred and then no one will ever want to disrespect it, or insult it.

To drag religion into politics and playing with it like a football is the real offense towards religion. So separating the religion from the state is the primary concern of the Blogger community in Bangladesh, also to save the religions from being insulted.

Just a couple of days ago, four Islamists were arrested for stabbing Asif.
Today Asif was arrested.
Does the government try to prove that Asif is as guilty as the Islamists who tried to murder him?
Asif wrote blogs expressing his thoughts on atheism, secularism and humanism. He did not kill anyone in the name of atheism. He asked no one to kill anyone to save atheism. He used his keyboard or pen to tell the truth. Islamists nearly killed Asif with knives. The government of Bangladesh thinks there is no difference between Asif, the freethinker and a bunch of murderers.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was a soft-core Islamist. She is now trying to be a hard-core Islamist. She is helping the Islamists for their dreams–of turning Bangladesh into a fundamentalist country–come true.

Sheikh Hasina has been preventing me from entering my country because I am an atheist and a feminist. She put enlightened bloggers in prison because those bloggers do not believe in God.

‘What is the difference between Islamists and Sheikh Hasina?’ I asked.

A friend of mine said, ‘the difference between Islamists and Sheikh Hasina is that Islamists do not pretend to be secular.’

Atheists are arrested.

Atheists get arrested in Bangladesh, a so called liberal Muslim country.

Bangladesh police have arrested three atheist bloggers for allegedly defaming Islam and the Prophet Mohammed, police said Tuesday, amid calls from religious fundamentalists for an Internet crackdown.

The arrest of the three, who were paraded in handcuffs at a news conference, followed pressure from Islamists who have organised a march from all over the country to the capital to demand the death penalty for atheist bloggers.

“They have hurt the religious feelings of the people by writing against different religions and their prophets and founders including the Prophet Mohammed,” said deputy commissioner of Dhaka police, Molla Nazrul Islam.

The three could face 10 years in jail if convicted under the country’s cyber laws which outlaw “defaming” a religion, Islam said.

He denied the arrests were linked to the planned march to Dhaka set for Saturday.

Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan said the three arrested men were among 84 “atheist bloggers” named in a list handed over by an Islamist group to a government panel probing alleged blasphemy against Islam on the Internet.

“The arrests were made on primary information” and further investigation is underway, Khan said, adding the government would act toughly to prevent any attempt to upset “communal harmony” via the Internet.

There has been vociferous debate between staunch atheists and fundamentalists in Bangladesh’s blogosphere and on social media for years, but it took a deadly turn in February when an atheist blogger was murdered.

The arrests came as Bangladesh has been hit by violent protests over a war crimes tribunal which is trying leading Islamists who opposed the country’s independence from Pakistan during the 1971 liberation war.

Islamists are stabbing and killing atheists. The government, instead of protecting atheists, harassing, threatening and arresting atheists. Atheists are treated as criminals in Bangladesh. It is a crime not to have a faith in Allah and Muhammad. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is protecting Allah and Muhammad from atheists. It means she believes that she is more powerful than Allah and Muhammad and Allah and Muhammad are too weak and vulnerable and unable to protect themselves. So it is her duty to protect them. What a blasphemy!

Menopause in 20’s

An alarming number of women in India are getting premature menopause. The reason of premature menopause is premature ovarian failure. The causes of premature ovarian failure are idiopathic, genetic disorders like turner syndrome and fragile X syndrome, autoimmune diseases, tuberculosis of the genital tract, radiation or chemotherapy to pelvic region, hysterectomy, prolonged gonadotrophin-releasing hormone therapy, enzyme defects, resistant ovary, induction of multiple ovulation in infertility etc.In some cases, specially in India, inhibin alpha gene.

But India’s leading newspaper The Times of India’s report says something else.

Doctors are finding a drastic change in the biological clocks of women as the mean age of contracting menopause has come down to around 35 years about 10 years early than what it was a decade ago. Gynaecologists confirmed treating women entering menopause as early as in their late 20s or early 30s.

A five-year long study conducted by Sattvam, a city-based care centre for women and children, found that 432 of the 980 women covered entered menopause in the age group of 30-35 years, while 216 were between 35-40 years age. The centre has also treated 68 women, who entered menopause in the age group of 25-30 years, while 264 women were above 40 years of age.

“What is worrying is that 42% of these women are working women. Ramifications of early menopause in some cases have been so extreme that it has adversely affected their profession and in some cases their personal life too. Most of them complained of frequent mood swings, depression, anxiety and sleeplessness. All these are capable of causing many other lifestyle diseases,” said Dr Deepak Shah, a homoeopath and director, Sattvam.

Dr Gayatri Karthik, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, Manipal Hospitals, said: “Entering menopause in late 20s or early 30s is not very common, but still we get about 2-3 such cases in a year. I treated a 27-year-old patient for menopause about a year ago. Urban lifestyle, increasing use of artificial reproductive techniques and stress among others can be the reasons behind this. But with science making so much of progress and techniques available for assisted reproduction women need not worry.”

I do not think urban lifestyle, working outside home, using ‘artificial reproductive techniques'(!) and stress are the reasons of having early menopause. What is in the urban lifestyle, work, reproductive techniques and stress that prevents ovaries to work? I do not find a single possible link between them.

Is this ‘research’ to discourage women to work, to use contraceptives, and to encourage child marriage?

More research should be done to find out the scientific reasons, not the unscientific or the
pseudoscientific, of women’s menopause in their 20’s.