Brahmanbaria-2 MP Barrister Rumeen Farhana on Monday questioned ‘why a state that has failed to protect children from rape and curb crime would support banning a film,’ as she condemned the suspension of screenings of Bonolota Express in Brahmanbaria.
Speaking at a human chain and protest program in Shahbazpur Union of Sarail Upazila, Rumeen said: “Why does a state that cannot protect a six-year-old child from rape and sexual abuse, cannot protect a seventy-year-old person from rape, where people are murdered every day, and that has failed to stop corruption, money laundering, and bank looting—why does that state support banning a film?”
The protest was held around 4:00pm in the First Gate area of Shahbazpur Union against the closure of the film's screening.
Describing Brahmanbaria as the cultural capital of Bangladesh, Rumeen said the district had long faced attacks on cultural institutions.
“The Ustad Alauddin Khan Music Institute was set on fire and vandalized in 2021. There is not a single cinema hall in Brahmanbaria. No cultural institution is being allowed to thrive,” she said, alleging that forces seeking to push Bangladesh toward fundamentalism were behind the move.
She said those same forces had now succeeded in stopping the screening of Bonolota Express, which she described as a family-friendly film.
Referring to what she called a rise in extremism, Rumeen said shrines had been demolished, graves desecrated, and right-wing extremism had grown over the past two years.
“But this is not the Bangladesh we knew,” she said, adding that the country's cultural and religious traditions had long coexisted.
She argued that a state that has failed to stop crime and protect children from rape and sexual abuse should not facilitate the suppression of cultural activities.
Warning against empowering anti-cultural forces, she said those being legitimized today could eventually turn against those supporting them.
“I hope wisdom will prevail. We must not deprive future generations of cultural activities,” she said.
Rumeen also said the 1971 Liberation War and the mass movement of 2024 belonged to people from all walks of life, warning against attempts to monopolize either movement.
Other speakers included Ferdous Rahman, general secretary of the Brahmanbaria district unit of Udichi; Mozammel Haque Sarkar, general secretary of Sarail Udichi; Dhaka University student Iftekhar Javed; Fahim Muntasir, founder of Sonali Sokal; and other cultural activists.
Police security was strengthened in the area ahead of the program, and a magistrate was deployed to prevent any untoward incidents.
