Event Date: March 14, 2025 - 3:00pm to 5:00pm
Location: FSS 4004 and via Zoom, 120 University Private, University of Ottawa

Registration: Google Forms

Presented by CIPS, the Gender, Peace and Development Research Network and the Research Network on Women, Peace and Security

Mass protests spearheaded by students in Bangladesh in the summer of 2024 had a remarkable outcome resulting in the ousting of then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The catalyst for the protests was the reinstatement of a job quota for civil service jobs to be assigned to 1971 Liberation War veterans which would mean that 30% of jobs would serve as patronage appointments that could consolidate Sheikh Hasina’s power in an increasingly autocratic government. Below the surface was growing concern for the country’s economic challenges and lack of employment opportunities facing university students from working-class backgrounds, as well as growing suppression of civil society. Over time the student movement grew to an intersectional movement, including groups focussed on gender equality, indigenous rights, and workers unions focused on economic justice, resulting in a broad-based coalition. At the time of the student protests, the government responded with brute force and backlash leading to an escalation of protests. Understanding these protests, and the events leading up to them, requires revisiting the current and historical national context as well as the role of international institutions and donor countries in Bangladesh. These extraordinary protests tells an important story of youth agency, women’s empowerment, and political transformation in the country. The panel will explore the range of issues emerging in Bangladesh leading up to and during this protest, and the role of diverse activists and agents of change.

This event will take place in-person and virtually.

Speakers:

Her Excellency Ms. Nahida Sobhan, High Commissioner for the People’s Republic of Bangladesh to Canada, joined the Bangladesh Civil Service in 1995 as part of the 15th batch of the BCS (Foreign Affairs). Throughout her career, she has held various diplomatic positions, including serving as Bangladesh’s Ambassador to Jordan, where she became the first Bangladeshi female ambassador to the Middle East. She has also served at the Bangladesh Permanent Mission in Geneva, the Bangladesh Embassy in Rome, and the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in Kolkata. Ms. Sobhan has extensive expertise in migration and human rights issues. Ms. Nahida Sobhan holds both an MA and a BA in English Literature from the University of Dhaka. She has undergone various diplomatic training, including the Diplôme de Relation Internationale at IIAP, Paris, France (1998-99), and the Summer Course on Public International Law at the Peace Palace, The Hague (1999).

Dr. Lilly Nicholls is a Canadian diplomat with 30 years of experience in global affairs and international development in Canada and overseas, through contributions to Government, the UN, civil society and academia. She has been Canadian Ambassador to Panama and Canada’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh. She led the Global Affairs Canada (GAC) Research Team that gathered and analyzed consultation results and evidence for the formulation of Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP). She is presently a Professional in Residence at the University of Ottawa’s School of International Development and Global Studies where she is advising the School and the Dean of Social Studies on the establishment of an International Hub.  

Dr. Mustahid Husain is a Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto, following his doctoral and postdoctoral work at the University of British Columbia. His research bridges digital, feminist, and socio-cultural anthropology, focusing on three main areas: socio-economic and racial inequality, racialized youth mental health, and community-engaged scholarship, particularly in South Asian contexts. His SSHRC-funded research explores how Muslim masculinities are shaped by inter-generational dynamics in diaspora communities. Dr. Husain’s book, Masculinity and Mental Health of Muslim Men of Colour (Palgrave 2024), examines mental health challenges facing Muslim Canadian youth of South Asian descent. His previous book, Development, Neoliberalism, and Islamism in South Asia (2022), analyzes social change in Bangladesh through a neoliberal lens. Dr. Husain has also authored Double Truths, a novel blending institutional ethnography with fiction to explore international development aid through Bengali cultural perspectives.

Najifa Khan is a graduate student at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University  of Ottawa (as of 2024) and she works part-time at Global Affairs Canada. She is interested in global politics, media, and communication, and on how Generation Z is shaping political discourse and international affairs.

Moderator:

Rebecca Tiessen is Professor in the School of International Development and Global Studies at the University of Ottawa, President of the Canadian Association for the Study of International Development (CASID), co-Director of the Gender, Peace and Development Research Network (uOttawa) and co-Director of the Research Network on Women, Peace and Security (national). Her areas of specialization include gender equality and women’s empowerment, Canadian foreign aid policy, feminist foreign policy, and global service learning. Her recent research examines the role and impact of transnational actors on gender equality outcomes in the Global South.  Her most recent book is: Innovations in Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Understanding the Role of International Development Volunteers as Transnational Actors (co-edited with Benjamin Lough, Tiffany Laursen and Khursheed Sadat in Voluntaris, 2021). She is the 2021-2022 recipient of the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Social Science  Excellence in Research Award and the 2023-2024 University of Ottawa Excellence in Education Award.