News stories by Naimul Haq, page 3

RANGAMATI, Bangladesh, Feb 12 (IPS) - On a gloomy weather in a hilly suburb in Tarabonia, three women keep themselves busy stitching clothes. The informal shop-cum tailoring outlet is the only one of its kind in the neighbourhood and so the shop has a good record of sales of apparels. Minu Bai Marma, a 27 year-old housewife who runs the rented shop, gives a smile and attends to her regular customers. Customers keep ordering for new dresses, especially before festivals and Minu and her husband earn a fairly good amount of profits to run the family.

TEKNAF, Bangladesh, Jun 30 (IPS) - Though he is only 16 years old, Mohammad Yasin has been through hell and back. He recently survived a hazardous journey by sea, crammed into the cargo-hold of a rudimentary boat along with 115 others.

DHAKA/UNITED NATIONS, Apr 22 (IPS) - Some say they were beaten with iron bars. Others confess their families have been threatened with death. One pregnant woman was assaulted with metal curtain rods.

DHAKA, Apr 08 (IPS) - Judging by how often they make headlines, one might be tempted to believe that women in Bangladesh don't play a major role in this country's affairs.

JAMALPUR, Bangladesh, Feb 04 (IPS) - Shanta* is only four years old, but already she loves school. Every morning, her mother walks her to the small pre-primary facility in Mohonpur village, about 140 km away from Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, and leaves her in the care of a young female teacher, who oversees the day's activities: storytelling, drama, reciting poetry.

KURIGRAM, Bangladesh, Oct 29 (IPS) - Jahanara Begum, a 35-year-old housewife, is surrounded by thatched-roof homes, all of which are partially submerged by floodwater.

RANGPUR, Bangladesh, Aug 25 (IPS) - Until five years ago, Shima Aktar, a student in Gajaghanta village in the Rangpur district of Bangladesh, about 370 km northwest of the capital Dhaka, was leading a normal life. But when her father decided that it was time for her to conform to purdah, a religious practice of female seclusion, things changed.

MYMENSINGH, Bangladesh, Jun 24 (IPS) - There was a time when four-year-old Taiba, a resident of Makril village in Bangladesh's central Netrokona district, had little to smile about.

DHAKA, Apr 28 (IPS) - Shohagi, 19, walks down a corridor to an audience of about a dozen commercial sex workers. In a loud and confident voice, the fellow sex worker shares her knowledge on the use of a condom.

DHAKA, Nov 05 (IPS) - On a hot and humid day in northwestern Bangladesh, Anisa Begum sits with a group of 25 homemakers, explaining how to use natural fertilisers to increase grain yield.