Bangladesh's student protestors are now helping to run the country
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 20 August 2024
⏱️ 10 minutes
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Summary
Authorities then cracked down on demonstrators, blocking internet access, imposing a curfew and issuing police officers a shoot-on-sight order. In just over a month, more than 600 people have been killed.
And as the protests escalated, the demonstrations started to become about much more than just the quota system.
Eventually, students were able to force Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign.
The students who ousted Hasina are now helping to lead Bangladesh.
"We youth are not only the generation of Facebook, YouTube and Instagram," says 19-year-old protestor Mumtahana Munir Mitti.
"We also love our country. And we also love to participate in [the] rebuilding of our country."
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | There's never been a summer quite like this in Bangladesh. In a few short months the country's future has transformed. |
| 0:08.0 | In July, student protesters took to the streets and led demonstrations against a controversial quota system for government jobs. |
| 0:16.0 | Demonstrators said the quota system favored people with connections to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's party. |
| 0:24.8 | Authorities began to crack down on protesters. The government blocked internet and |
| 0:29.2 | mobile access. Police imposed a curfew and a shoot-on-site order. |
| 0:35.0 | What started out as peaceful protests escalated into violence. |
| 0:40.0 | In just over a month, more than 600 people have been killed. |
| 0:44.0 | We want justice. |
| 0:47.0 | The demonstration soon were about much more than job quotas. |
| 0:54.4 | They became a movement to oust Sheikh Hasina. |
| 0:57.7 | The quota was really the tip of the iceberg. |
| 1:00.9 | It could have been dealt with, once it wasn't then the whole |
| 1:04.4 | tender box exploded. That is Shaheidalam, a photojournalist, writer, and |
| 1:09.2 | activist based in DACA, the capital. As unrest in the country continued, on August 4th, almost 100 people were killed in a police crackdown |
| 1:19.1 | causing outrage. |
| 1:20.8 | And just a day later, Hasina was forced to resign. She fled the country. |
| 1:25.8 | Protesters overran her residence. 19 year old |
| 1:35.0 | old Monaher Mitya has been painting revolutionary murals all over Dhaka |
| 1:40.0 | and she says her generation was long dismissed. |
| 1:44.0 | We youth are not only the generation of Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. |
| 1:49.0 | We also love our country and we also love to participate in rebuilding of our country. |
| 1:54.0 | Consider this from the classroom to the government. The same students who ousted the |
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