Considered an ‘apolitical’ group, this cohort of students also risked their lives to stand up to the government in July last year. But after August 5th, private university students have been all but sidelined.

Private university students did not have a stake in the quota reform movement initiated by public university students last year. But when the then-government used unlawful lethal force to suppress the protests, they took to the streets risking their lives and breathing new life into the movement.

The border between Bangladesh and India is not just a fence of steel and wire – it is a scar across collective memory, a forgotten chapter written not in ink, but in blood.

Each piece of clothing sewn tells a story of intense labour. Each tea leaf plucked whispers about unjust pay and the enduring shadows of colonial rule. Every exported item from Bangladesh carries an unseen human toll – often paid quietly, in suffering.

From the Language Movement in 1952 to the July Uprising in 2024, the female student halls of Dhaka University have played a key role in shaping Bangladesh’s political history.