Members of the arts and crafts collective, Jatra, have fled a community near the Sundarbans where they were working to set up an arts and crafts centre, after local musclemen gave them the choice of either wearing burqas or quitting the village.
The four Jatra staff members were repeatedly told to uphold “Islamic rules” and donning the burqa in public while working with the women of Joymoni village in Mongla.
Anusheh Anadil, a folk-rock musician and managing director of Jatra, yesterday told journalists in the capital’s Banani that the four members of the group felt compelled to return to Dhaka in the early hours yesterday after facing intimidation and extortion from locals.
“For three weeks, the clerics of Joymoni have been unhappy with the women of the village coming out of their homes and dreaming about earning a living,” she said.
Threats culminated when the four Jatra staff members were encircled by around 300 men at the local marketplace on Wednesday evening.
“Around 11pm on Wednesday, the local correspondents of GTV, Somoy TV, Bangla Vision, My TV and Desh TV arrived in the village. With the collusion of the Union Parishad member, they threatened Jatra staff and accused them of being involved in the trafficking of women and other immoral activities,” Anusheh said.
The police initially assisted Jatra staff, but later turned against them after being influenced by the locals. The group of journalists also told Jatra staff that a settlement could be reached if they paid out Tk50,000, Anusheh said.
As the crowd grew unruly around midnight, Jatra staff paid Tk25,000 to Ronny, a well-known local person, she said.
With the assistance of several village women, Jatra staff were able to leave the village around 3am yesterday.