Bangladesh in the eyes of Americans

One day after the terrorist attack in France last year, one of my students came to me and asked how far geographically Bangladesh was from the countries where ISIS is strong. I replied, "Let's say from Mobile, Alabama to Brazil." The student continued to ask if Bengalis were different from members of ISIS. I explained most people in Bangladesh were tolerant Muslims, that Bangladesh was an example of a secular society among the Muslim countries in the world. The prime minister, leader of the opposition, speaker of the parliament, as well as several cabinet ministers were all women. I asked him if he had seen any other Muslim country where women were in the several top government positions of that country?

You might be surprised by my American student's depth of knowledge (rather lack of) in asking such questions. I have faced these questions many times during my eight-years of expatriate life in the United States. Despite the fact that the world has become a global village in this age of rapid development of the Internet, many Americans have very limited knowledge about global affairs. My student could have found a lot of information about Bangladesh with a single Google search. Maybe the student would be more interested in doing so after talking to me. Regardless, the student wanted to make sure from me that Bangladesh was not like the other Muslim countries where ISIS was based.

This kind of ignorance about the Muslim world is not fairly common in the US. I have had opportunities to visit many American universities and talk to students. I usually introduce myself as a Bengali and tell them I am from Bangladesh. Then I ask them if they know where Bangladesh is. Many reply that it is "somewhere in the Middle East." Some say Bangladesh is on their left while a few say Bangladesh is on their right. Surprisingly, many of them might wear clothes with a 'Made in Bangladesh,' tag but few would ever wonder about the country named in those tags at the back of their clothes.

I had a plan to bring my students for a study abroad programme in Bangladesh in the summer of 2016 to study the role of Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) in eradicating poverty and empowering women in Bangladesh. Several studies have been done in this area and countries around the world appreciate the achievement of Bangladesh in different sectors of social development including education and health. In a recent visit to Bangladesh, the World Bank president said Bangladesh has set an example in this area to other countries in eradicating poverty. The NGOs have played a very significant role in poverty reduction in Bangladesh. As I grew up in a village in Brahmanbaria, I have firsthand experience witnessing the role NGOs play in social development including poverty reduction. Based on my experience, I would say the contribution of these NGOs in empowering women to actively participate in politics should be highly appreciated. In this respect, we should be very proud and show other developed countries that we elected women leaders to run our country long before they did.

When I was a PhD student at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, I had a chance to bring a group of students from different universities in the United States to observe the activities of NGOs in Bangladesh for two consecutive years. The students were amazed by the strides made by these organisations in addressing poverty and women's empowerment. Even though some of them were afraid to come to Bangladesh, many of them became very emotional when leaving Bangladesh at the end of their visit. Some of them later came back to Bangladesh after their first visit and worked for different international organisations. Based on my experience during my student life in the US, I tried to highlight the positive side of Bangladesh while planning to bring my students to Bangladesh.

Unfortunately, some religious fundamentalist groups attacked and in some cases, killed, progressive bloggers, writers and intellectuals before our scheduled visit to Bangladesh. The way fanatics were ferociously killing people reminded us of the mediaeval barbaric actions of the ISIS in the Middle East. American and international news media widely covered these incidents in Bangladesh, including the horrible terrorist attack in Gulshan, which was the lead story for leading television networks including CNN. Many people who did not know anything about Bangladesh before the Gulshan incident started to have a very negative image of Bangladesh. Recently, a senior official of my university asked me about the latest situation of Bangladesh. He said he learned from the media coverage that what happened in Gulshan was very unusual.I told him religious fundamentalism could not be sustained in the long term in a tolerant society such as Bangladesh. Many people have been vocal against the recent atrocities of the terrorist groups and government operations against these groups have been successful and going on.

My answer might assure this American professor about the future of Bangladesh. As a highly educated citizen, he might cross check the information that he would get about Bangladesh from the American media. Unfortunately, many ordinary Americans would believe the news about religious fundamentalism and the rise of terrorism in Bangladesh.They would not be inclined to search for alternative news sources or to dig deeper into the story. Although we had hoped the current situation in Bangladesh would have improved faster, based on its thousand-year old tradition, Bangladesh will surely uphold its image as a secular country to the rest of the world including the United States of America!