Farzana Wahid Shayan, a singer and health activist, has consistently used her music to confront any injustices head-on.
Known for her quick responses to social and global issues through her music, Shayan has once again captured the nation's attention with her latest release "Meyera Raat Dokhol Kor" (Women Take Over the Night).
This song, protesting the brutal gang rape and murder of a doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, expresses solidarity.
It says that the night and the dawn—the very hours typically seen as unsafe—belong just as much to women as they do to men.
The lyrics of the song go: "Listen, girl, this night and this dawn/ As much as it belongs to men, even more so to you. Listen, girl, you walk on the sky/Even in the deep night, barefoot. On the corners of this neighborhood/As much as it belongs to men, even more so to you.”
This is not the first time Shayan has used her music to speak out against injustice.
Her previous work includes a song about the disappearance of Kalpana Chakma, a prominent case that highlighted issues of human rights abuses. Kalpana and her two brothers were abducted on June 12, 1996, from her home at Lallyaghona village allegedly by the members of the Bangladesh Army
Shayan also used her voice for the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, creating a song that expressed solidarity with the cause.