International Mother Language Day Celebration at AUW

History of International Mother Language Day

On February 21, 1952, several Bangladeshi students were killed since they campaigned to officially use their mother language, Bengali. Since then 21st February then has long been observed as national martyrs’ day in Bangladesh. In 1999, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared the day as the International Mother Language Day.

While observing the day this year, UNESCO reaffirmed the importance of local languages, especially those of minority and indigenous, as a means for celebrating and maintaining cultures, values and traditional knowledge, which in turn plays a role in promoting sustainable futures (UNESCO, 2017).

This year Asian University for Women (AUW) Community celebrated the International Mother Language Day with multiple meaningful activities among students, professors and staffs.

Games and activities organized by Writing Center

On 20th February, to promote linguistic diversity, Writing Center has organized varied language activities for AUW students. Students were immersed in four games – Tongue Twisters, Word Search Game, Learning Words in New Languages, Language Quiz - to learn new words and phrases with their friends. If Tongue Twisters Game requires players with fluency in pronunciation, Learning Words in New Languages gives players a chance to memorize words in different languages in short time, Word Search Game requires high focus in searching words in through a list of provided letters. In contrast, Language Quiz is a quick test about language knowledge for players. These meaningful games gave students opportunity to learn their friend’s Mother Languages and cultures.

Cultural Show organized by AUW students

On February 21st, AUW students organized a Cultural show from 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm. Many AUW professors, students and staffs from different countries have taken part in the celebration of International Mother Language Day. They were dressed in black and white for showing respecting to Martyrs, who sacrificed lives and made history on this day.

Cultural Show was organized as a drama combining with performance from many countries. Audiences engrossed in the program as a journalist tried to explore the meaning and experience of people about celebrate International Mother Language Day. She has conservations with different group of people (from a young and dating couple to boys, a politician, an old woman). Finally, he realizes that some make this day a chance of dating, some consider speaking English make us more educated , some do not know about Martyrs and only an old woman ,who is a wife a Martyr, shows how much sacrifice was made for the Bangla language. Drama went to an end with an emotional and heart-touching question of journalist after her trip: “Is there only this old woman who respects the martyrs? Isn’t it our responsibility to respect Martyrs?”

Along with drama, there are many performances contributed by students from students and professor such as traditional dances (Indian students, Myanmar students, Bangladesh students ), singing , and poetry reading.

“Respecting Martyrs who sacrifice for our language is my inspiration for writing this drama. I would like to remind people that should not forget our history”, said Sonia Gomes , an AA student and story writer of this drama.

Language Game has marked an end of Cultural Show with 5 language identification and meaning question. Many audience excitedly join game, prof. Riaz Khan , Mr. Nasir ( staff of OSA), and three students were winners of the game.

Audiences have been brought heart-touching moments as well as fun through the creative and lovely acting.

Reference:

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/international-mother-language-day/

Author:Nhung Bui

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The Valentine’s Day at AUW

This year on Valentine’s Day, the Student Government (SG) has organized a Valentine party for the AUW community. During the party, held from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm, students spent time in dancing with upbeat music as well as singing along with their friends and classmates. The party was successful in giving students opportunity to refresh themselves at the middle of week and enjoying Valentine’s Day with their friends. Students also enjoyed the chocolate cakes and popcorns arranged for them by Student Government along with the drinks from the Food Stalls. At 8:30 pm, result of the Heart Game was announced with the prize for only one who earned much hearts from other players. Tonight’s party marked a series of celebration throughout the week arranged by the Auw SG, which included celebrating Rose Day, Promise Day, Chocolate Day and Hug Day!

Along with the fun activities arranged by Student Government, The Office of Student Affairs at AUW (OSA) creatively decorated a pretty Art Corner named ‘Paper, Heart, Locks’. It has been designed as a place for students to share their stories on Valentine’s Day. With heart papers prepared by OSA, students wrote down their letters to their beloved ones without signing their names on them and hung on the love tree.

Written by: Nhung Bui

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AUW National Model United Nations 2017

“Endorsing multiculturalism to counter extremism”- with this as main agenda, the three day long AUW National Model United Nations 2017 (AUWNMUN) has started today. The first day of the conference included the opening ceremony where Dr. Rosie Bateson, Dean of Faculty of AUW and Dr. Herman Salton, Adviser of AUWMUN Club addressed the delegates. 208 delegates from different institutions around the country has joined 6 different committees for this conference. With the inspiration from the success of last two MUN conferences, AUWMUN Club members has been working hard since the end of last November to organize the third conference. Shamael Ahmed, the PR Director, repeated this conviction saying “Despite the hectic schedules and many challenges, we are trying our best to make this conference as successful as possible.”

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Annual Inter-House Sports Competition of Last week

First position on volleyball competition that was held on 3^rd February in M.A. Aziz Stadium was secured by mixed players from Justice and Wisdom houses. Truth house became second. In football, Service house became first and mixed group from Truth and Imagination house became second. Mahreen Mustafa from Joy house and Bedana Rai from Justice became first and second respectively in chess, whereas in carom, Palanisamy Mangaleshwary from truth and Tshering became first and second respectively.

While in Kata, which was held in AUW gym, Yulita Muspitasari from Imagination house and Aditi Manandhar from Wisdom house became first and second respectively. Choney Dema and Tshering Tsencho Zam became third. In Kumite under 39-49kg, Choney Dema from Imagination house became first, Samjhana Raut became second. Third position was secured by Khatima Afzali and Tram Duong. Likewise, under 50-55kg Neha Gauchan became first and Chit Cu second. Wasundaraand Samira Panahi became third. Under 56-65kg Tshering Tsencho Zam and Fawzia Yosufi became first and second respectively. Nan Saw Mon and Bedana Rai became third.

On the last day of the competition, 4^th February, dancers from dance club performed an opening flashmob dance. In basketball competition, Service house became first. Second position was secured by Imagination house. On the other side, in cheer-leading competition, Wisdom house became first, second service house and third imagination. Kranti Joshi and Choney Dema became first and second respectively in table tennis.

In badminton single, Warna Dilshika Fonseka from Truth house and Samjhana from Wisdom house became first and second respectively. In badminton double, Warna Dilshika Fonseka and Palanisamy Mangaleshwary from Truth house became first, and Kranti Joshi and Alisha Bohora from Service house became second.

Author:  Alisha Bohora

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The Unwanted People

The nation that they call as their own, do not accept them as citizens. Their houses are burnt, and belongings are looted. Being killed, raped, shot and persecuted, they are forced to migrate to a neighboring country, which already being overly populated, cannot afford to ensure shelter for them. However, tons of people are fleeing from their own land, with the hope that they will be capable to escape death for the time being. These terrible yet practical stories are from the lives of Rohingya people of Myanmar, who are considered to be the most oppressed and persecuted ethnic community in the world at present.

Rohingyas are one of the small ethnic groups of Muslims, who live in the Rakhain state of Myanmar. Rohingyas have been living there for a long time, and interstingly also declare themselves as “Arab descendants”. However, the government of Myanmar does not consider them as their citizens, and thus, do not provide them with any basic citizen rights. Moreover, The government of Myanmar claims that the Rohingya people are actually the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, with which Bangladeshi Governement strictly disagree.

Rejecting the Rohingyas as citizens, the government of Myanmar follows a strict, and a harsh policy to clear them out from the country, which they were implementing for decades. Nevertheless, the most recent clearance operation of Rohingyas from Myanmar has reached to the peak in brutality. On October 9, 2016, Police of Myanmar announced that Rohingya “militants” killed nine security officers, although it has not been established with evidence. Right after the announcement, Rohingya community started facing brutal persecution by the armed forces of the state, which was later set as “legitimate genocide” in scores of different international media. Agreeing to a later story in Time magazine, more than 100 people have been killed, hundreds have been held up by the military, more than 150,000 aids-reliant people have been gone away without food and medical attention, lots of women claim to have been sexually assaulted in the Rakhain state of Myanmar. Alarmingly, the numbers are expected to be more as the days are going by.

Despite having constant pressure from the world community, the government of Myanmar continues forcing the Rohingya people to leave the state with the supporter of  the worst possible ways of  shooting down, cutting, and plundering. Journalists and reporters are banned in the affected areas, and surprisingly, there is a claim from the government that, being fundamentalists and extremists, the Rohingyas are actually burning their own houses during internal clashes.

Unfortunately, Rohingyas do not get any kind of support from the citizens of Myanmar, as most of them also deny the citizenship of Rohingya community. As a result, they are fleeing to Bangladesh, the neighboring country, and are seeking shelter as refugees. Every day, hundreds of Rohingyas are reported to cross the border of Bangladesh include wounded, pregnant women, and children. Lots of them are forced to go back to Myanmar, because, being a densely populated country, it is very difficult for Bangladesh to provide shelter for the huge number of refugees coming into the country every single day. The government of Bangladesh thinks that opening the borders for the Rohingya refugees might encourage the Myanmar government to force more and more Rohingyas to leave the country.

In spite of sending back a huge number of Rohingyas to their own country, Bangladesh already provided temporary shelter for huge numbers of Rohingyas in different border areas with the technical support from UNHCR. Presently, there are about 300000 people living in different camps in CoxsBazar, Bangladesh. In the camps, they are leading devastating lives- lack of proper medical care and education.

Recently, different international human rights organizations have created pressure on the Myanmar government to take them back and provide them citizenship, but the situation does not seem to get changed at all. Thousands of people are living with uncertainty, extreme fear, and devastating lives, with no hope that their own country will ever accept them.

Author: Tahira Tazreen

Sources:

www.aljazeera.com

www.unhcr.org

www.bbc.com

www.time.uk

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AUW Annual Inter- House Sports Competition

 The Annual Inter House Sports Competition 2017 has started on January 27. On the first day of sports competition, athletic games- 100m, 200m and 400m race, Long Jump and Short Put were held successfully under the supervision of Basketball Coach Mr. Fazal Rabban, Volleyball coach Miss Saima, Badminton Coach Mr. Nikhil. Miss Maria Chakraborty, Sports Director and Karate instructor, supervised the overall program held at the AUW Campus Site.

In 100m race, Nafisa Islam from Wisdom House secured the first position. Choney Dema and Sonam Wangdem, both from Imagination House, became second and third respectively. In 400m race, Neha Gauchan from Truth House became first, and Zahra Rezai (UG4) from Courage House and Karima Khan from Justice House secured second and third position respectively. And, in 200m race, Warna Dilshika Fonseka from Truth House, Anna Daniel from Imagination House and Saima Tahsin from Truth House became first, second and third respectively.

In Short Put, Dorji Wangmo (AA) from Wisdom House secured the first position. Sonam Wangden became second and Kranti Joshi from Service House became third in Short Put. Likewise in long jump Kranti Joishi became first, Wahida Nahid from Service House and Nafisa became second and third respectively.

The Second day of the Annual Inter House Sports Competition 2017 will have Badminton competition, which is supposed to held at the Rifles’ Club, Chittagong.






Author: Alisha Bohora

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“Don’t judge a book by its cover”

Why you are going to Bangladesh? Don’t you have good universities here, in your own country? What is there in Bangladesh? Don’t you know the issues between Pakistan and Bangladesh? These were some of the questions asked by many people when I got selected for Asian University for Women, Chittagong, Bangladesh. I was so concerned about my decision when, I heard all these but after coming here I get to know that my decision was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life. This is a life changing step for me, being a Pakistani living in a country which has many issues with my homeland. As said by someone “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, same was the case with me. Before coming here, I heard a lot about issues between Pakistan and Bangladesh and people told me that Bangladeshi’s even don’t like Pakistanis but it was not the reality. After spending almost one year and a half, I realize that most of the issues arise due to misunderstanding. People in Bangladesh are loving, caring and friendly. There are issues going on between these two countries, but it never has an impact on relations between students inside AUW campus. I saw a totally different side of the picture after coming to AUW. 

The best part about AUW community is, everyone respects each others cultural, religious and social values. This is the beauty of diversity which gives us the opportunity to interact with people from different countries, religion and culture. AUW is a place which has changed my whole life and gave me the courage of living with different people under one umbrella, representing my own culture and identity. AUW is a platform to unite different individuals from different parts of Asia and give them opportunities to understand each others differences and respect them. Now I am confident that I had made best decision of my life and will continue to represent my country and culture here in the best way I can.

Author: Sanam Gul

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Talk by Craig Dana, Senior Vice President, Supply Chain Asia, Tory Burch Hong Kong

On Monday, 30th January, 2017, AUW community was delighted to welcome Mr. Craig Dana, the Senior Vice President, Supply Chain Asia, Tory Burch Hong Kong Limited, and a member of AUW Hong Kong board, for his short visit.

In the afternoon, there was a session held at the Tale Space, where he addressed the AUW community. He visited different classes and during the address he also expressed his admiration about the AUW students. Complementing the outspoken nature of students, he said: “AUW students have got very strong opinions.” Mr. Dana then presented the company Tory Burch, where he is currently working.

The informative presentation encouraged AUW students to pose further questions regarding minimum wage issue, corporate responsibility, luxury goods, liberal education, job market and such other issues. Mr. Dana especially emphasized the value of liberal arts education on equipping students with the ability to think critically, to communicate creatively, to extend the spheres of knowledge and a wide range of skills. Mr. Dana concluded his address with an advice: “You have to know what your strengths are, what you are passionate at, and what motivates you.”

 

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