The recent spate of gruesome killings of bloggers critical of Islam—Bangladesh’s state religion—is a timely reminder of the potential perils that rights and development activists face in this country as they navigate an increasingly intolerant and more hazardous landscape.
In just over a month, two bloggers were hacked to death in public places, following three similar attacks in 2013, in which one blogger died. A decade back, a famous author also fell victim to a similar attack for his critical views on Islam. Indeed, over the last decade, Bangladesh saw a rise in the number of large and small militant Islamist organizations, who carried out explosives attacks on courts and at cultural events around the country.
And yet, in the decade before this shift into darker terrain, Bangladesh could have staked a claim as the poster child for a relatively tolerant and pluralistic society among majority Muslim countries in the world. The country has enjoyed democratically elected governments headed by women for 22 of the last 24 years. This is home to Nobel prize-winning Grameen Bank, which provides microcredit to more than seven million rural Bangladeshis, 97%of whom are women. It is also the second-largest ready-made garment exporter in the world, an industry that employs 80% women.
