Op-Ed
Analysis and commentary from journalists, lawyers, researchers, and civil society across South and Southeast Asia.
Akib Ahmed
Assistant Editor, The South Asian Story · 8 August 2026
I met him for ten minutes. That is not very long. It is not long enough to learn a person's whole life, or even a fair portion of it. But it was long enough to understand something I will not be able to forget: that the price of Bangladesh's freedom is still being paid.He was…
All Pieces
- 03AUG2026
They Send Money Home. The Heat Comes With It.
MRMohammad Rahmatullah
Executive Editor, The South Asian Story
Migrant WorkersClimate JusticeSustainable HousingAcross South Asia, women and men working abroad are financing “modern” houses that trap heat, deepen air-conditioning dependence and leave families with a lifetime of thermal debt.Picture a newly built house beside a village road in Bangladesh. It has two floors, a high boundary…
- 29JUL2026
You Tipped the Waiter. Did You See the Rickshaw Puller? The Right We Forget
AAAkib Ahmed
Assistant Editor, The South Asian Story
Human RightsRespect for the poorWe are taught to count human rights on our fingers. Five, six, the right to life, to speech, to education, to shelter, to a fair trial. We memorize them like a syllabus and assume the list is complete. It isn't. Somewhere between the lines of every declaration, there is a right…
- 23JUL2026
215 Years Is Not a Plan
SBShuchi Binte Shahjalal
Associate Editor, The South Asian Story
Gender & Women's RightsMoney decides who this happens to. Nearly 69% of women with no education were married before 18—and Bangladesh's own data shows secondary enrollment for girls at just over 83%, but only 59% actually complete it, meaning close to a quarter of the girls who start secondary school are gone before they finish it, for reasons that have nothing to do with their grades. The girls I met in Noakhali weren't struggling with the material. They just weren't being asked to imagine a future built around it.
- 21JUL2026
Which Bangla Will Bangladesh’s National AI Speak?
MRMohammad Rahmatullah
Executive Editor, Tha South Asian Story
Artificial IntelligenceBangla LanguageLinguistic RightsThe country’s proposed language model could bring government closer to its citizens—or teach public services to misunderstand them.Bangladesh is preparing to build a national Bangla language model. Before asking how intelligent it will be, the country must ask a more democratic…
- 09JUL2026
The Women We Send and Do Not Bring Back
MAMahinur Akther
Daffodil International University
Women MigrantForced LabourGulf MigrationThe Women We Send and Do Not Bring BackBangladesh's migrant women, the Gulf, and the abuse the country has learned to live withI was ten the first time I flew to Bangladesh. Returning to Dubai, our PIA flight broke its journey in Karachi for an eight-hour transit, and we were…
- 08JUL2026
Cox's Bazar Has Room for the UN, Not for Its Own Children
AAAkib Ahmed
Student, Daffodil International University
Human Rightschild laborNGO accountabilityCox's Bazar is a hub for human rights conversations in this region, from the sprawling refugee crisis on its northern edge to a quieter, less-discussed failure closer to its beaches: the basic rights denied to the children who live along its coastline. Everyone talks about the…
- 06JUL2026
Building Walls Won't Fill Europe's Labour Shortages
MMMd. Mamunur Rashid
Co-Founder, The South Asian Story
Bangladeshi Migrant WorkersCivil Society & NGOsTrafficking & Forced LabourRestricting irregular migration without expanding safe and accessible pathways to EU risks reinforcing the very smuggling networks governments seek to dismantle. People rarely embark on dangerous journeys because they are unaware of the risks.
- 25JUN2026
When Water Has a Gatekeeper
MRMohammad Rahmatullah
Executive Editor, The South Asian Story
Prepaid IrrigationCivil Society & NGOsIn Bangladesh, climate change is often imagined as water arriving with violence: a cyclone, a flood, a river taking away land overnight. But in the Barind region of the north-west, the crisis is quieter. Water does not arrive. It has to be requested, purchased, scheduled,…
- 21JUN2026
Women's Privacy in the Age of AI-Generated Images
SBShuchi Binte Shahjalal
Associate Editor, The South Asian Story
Gender & Women's RightsA predictable objection to fast-takedown laws is that they risk overreach, that platforms pressured to remove content within hours will err toward deletion, sweeping up legitimate speech alongside genuine abuse. It's a real concern, and one reason laws like TAKE IT DOWN build in penalties for bad-faith reporting. But the asymmetry of harm here is not close. A wrongly removed post can be appealed and restored. A circulated intimate image cannot be uncirculated. Erring toward swift removal, with safeguards against misuse, is the correct tradeoff.
- 21JUN2026
Bangladeshi Migrant Workers are Paying the Price of a Crisis They Didn’t Create
MMMd Mamunur Rashid
Co-Founder, The South Asian Story
Bangladeshi Migrant WorkersCivil Society & NGOsAs per the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), at least 25,000 Bangladeshi workers have already been unable to depart for overseas jobs due to flight disruptions, rising migration costs, and hiring freezes linked to the crisis since the crisis started. For most, migration is financed through hefty loans. When departure is delayed or cancelled, these workers—and their families—are left with mounting debt but no income.
- 21JUN2026
Human Rights in the Digital Age: A New Frontier for Equality
JCJune Chakma
Wydiz
Human rightsMigrationOtherAs technology becomes deeply integrated into daily life, a new human rights challenge is emerging, which is: digital rights. Access to information, online privacy, freedom of expression, and protection from digital discrimination are becoming essential components of modern…