I first heard of Xulhaz Mannan a couple of days ago when
Steve posted the
link to a song for which he had written the music. In Bangladesh several
academics and bloggers have been brutally murdered and now, according to
reports, they are trying to "erase his name." By telling his story,
perhaps I can do my bit to keep his name alive.
Mannan, a graduate of the University of Dhaka, worked at the
US Embassy in Bangladesh and regularly posted photos of diplomatic events on
his Facebook page. (Ironically, in December his cover page contained a
tribute to "the martyrs.")
In recent months, activists and thought leaders have been increasingly targeted in Bangladesh. On Saturday, according to the Independent, a professor was hacked to death by the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, and on April 6, suspected extremists killed an atheist, secular activist in similar fashion.
World.Mic
Mannan
worked for both Roopbaan and the Bangladesh outpost of USAid, the
United States' government's humanitarian and development agency.
Roopbaan was the country's only LGBT magazine, launched in 2014 to
promote greater acceptance of LGBT communities in Bangladesh.
Homosexual relations are criminalized in Bangladesh and many LGBT activists
have been forced into exile. Mannan had worked in the human rights
sector specially for the LGBT community in Bangladesh. He successfully
arranged a "rainbow rally" in Dhaka on 14 April 2015, however the rally was
canceled in 2016 on police instruction, following death threats.
The current US Ambassador to the country issued a statement
saying “We abhor this senseless act of violence and urge the government of
Bangladesh in the strongest terms to apprehend the criminals behind these
murders.”
Champa Patel, Amnesty
International’s south Asia director, said: “There have been four deplorable
killings so far this month alone. It is shocking that no one has been held
to account for these horrific attacks and that almost no protection has been
given to threatened members of civil society.
USAID published a statement calling Mannan "a courageous
advocate for human rights." John Kerry has urged the prime minister to
arrest the killers.
Mannan's mother is
a retired education ministry officer and elder brother was the vice
president of Dhaka stock exchange. His elder sister is a pharmacist, living
in the US. His father, who died several years ago was actively involved with
the Bangladeshi independence movement in 1971. His cousin was former
Bangladeshi Foreign Minister, Dr. Dipul Moni.
Perhaps the worst thing about this horrific crime is that
protesters are cheering for the murderers.
This is the song that Steve
wrote. Let's keep his name alive.
We in this country are so incredibly far removed from what it
is like for some people in the world. Maybe we don't want to know.
Maybe it's ugly and unpleasant and we'd rather find out who won Dancing
with the Stars. But that ugliness exists.
Today I read the story of a little girl in...I can't remember
what country now, unfortunately. Philippines? Maybe.
Anyway, someone from Compassion went to visit her home and discovered that
she lived with her grandmother under a house. The
visitor asked what they did when the rainy season came and the grandmother
said that during the rainy season, they lived with water up to their waste
all the time.
I is so important that we
share things like this, to humanize them, to bring stories of extreme
poverty and extreme violence out into the open.
Writing about the massacre of Xulhaz Mannan
in a little blog in a little town in California is not going to have any
effect on violence in Bangladesh, but maybe if enough people like me keep
his name alive, it will be more difficult to wipe the whole thing off the
books an his memory will live on.
 | ||
| with the wife of the US Ambassador to Bangladesh with a
certificate Mannan was awarded at the American embassy in 2014 |
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