This panel brings together scholars and activists to critically engage with the intersections of gender, sexuality, religion, labour and transnational politics in the context of contemporary Bangladesh. It responds to shifting socio-political realities—including heightened repression of gender and sexual rights and nascent LGBTQI movement, the rise of anti-gender and anti-trans movements, and growing engagement with global development and rights discourses. Moving beyond homocolonial critiques, the roundtable interrogates how these frameworks interact with local histories, religious narratives, practices, and creative forms of resistance. Drawing on diverse case studies—from the nascent LGBTQI movement to the 2024 political uprising, and donor-driven NGOisation to transnational advocacy networks—each presentation offers grounded insights into the complexities of solidarity, citizenship, and identity. This event is designed for scholars, students, activists, and practitioners interested in gender and sexual politics, Muslim subjectivities, anti-colonial feminist inquiry, decolonial thought, and South–North dynamics, to foster nuanced dialogue around resilient futures in and beyond Bangladesh. 

Date: Thursday 01 May
Time: 13:00
Venue: Room 916, 42 Bute Gardens, Glasgow, G12 8RS

Speaker: Momin Rahman (Trent University), Matthew Waites (University of Glasgow), Adnan Hossain (University of Glasgow), Delwar Hussain (University of Edinburgh), Mitaja Chakraborty (University of Glasgow), and Tanvir Alim (University of Glasgow).

For enquiries and more information, please contact Tanvir Alim.

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Paper abstract- Beyond homocolonialism: working towards queer decoloniality in Bangladesh by Momin Rahman 

The queer movement in Bangladesh suffered a crisis in 2016 with the murder of two activists, leading to an unwanted hyper-visibility in wider society, and a chilling effect on activism. This paper will detail what it means to think beyond postcolonial critiques of international LGBTQ rights, briefly explaining the realities and limits of queer politics in Bangladesh, focusing on sexual health infrastructures and the emergence of legal citizenship for the “third gender” hijra population. I argue that these dimensions of queer existence remain circumscribed, and that a public discourse of sexualities remains difficult to create as a terrain for equality. The paper will explore whether the framing of ‘decolonial’ is useful here, conceptualised as a process of working through the postcolonial critique of western structures of financial and sexual frameworks, towards an understanding of crisis that requires reading colonialism in its later evolution in the context of nationalism, neoliberal development, and religious fundamentalism.  

Paper abstract- Re-imagining a transgender-inclusive Bangladesh in the wake of the July uprising: Some preliminary observations by Adnan Hossain  

This essay offers a set of reflections on the possibilities of societal accommodation and political inclusion of transgender persons in the wake of the July 2024 uprising in Bangladesh that led to the usurpation of the world’s longest serving female prime minister. The fall of the regime spawned new hope and possibilities for re-imagining a pluralistic Bangladesh inclusive of various marginalised and underprivileged communities, including transgender persons. However, despite opening transgender issues to debate, the nascent anti-transgender movement that had been gaining ground for the last two to three years in Bangladesh began to reassert itself in the post-uprising Bangladesh. The moral legitimation of this anti-transgender politics is premised on a deliberate conceptual and ideological linking of homosexuality with transgender identities while hijra, a putatively indigenous gender and sexually diverse group, is essentialised as a ‘genitally handicapped’ (Lingo o jouno protobondhi) community increasingly in danger of being corrupted by Western transgender politics. Importantly, the anti-transgender politics in Bangladesh is part of a globally and regionally circulating anti-transgender politics and should not be dismissed as having roots in local Islam alone. The picture that emerges is one of various exclusionary mechanisms that continue to demonise and sideline gender and sexually diverse communities despite the promise of a new social contract and political arrangement in post-2024 uprising Bangladesh. 

Paper abstract- Broken Rainbows: Queer Activism, Colonial Legacies, and Violence in Bangladesh by Delwar Hussain 

This article critically examines the murder of Bangladeshi LGBTQ+ activists Xulhaz Mannan and Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy in 2016, situating their deaths within the broader entanglements of colonial legacies, postcolonial governance, religious extremism, and the global human rights apparatus. Through ethnographic reflection, political analysis, and queer critique, the paper explores how colonial-era laws like Section 377 continue to underpin contemporary state-sanctioned and non-state violence against queer individuals in South Asia. It interrogates how global LGBTQ+ discourses—while well-intentioned—often impose Western frameworks that can obscure or erase indigenous expressions of gender and sexuality. The piece also examines the divergent trajectories of hijra and LGBTQ+ communities in Bangladesh, highlighting how colonial and class histories shape their respective legal and social recognitions. Ultimately, the article argues for a more nuanced, decolonial approach to sexual rights activism—one that centres local histories, epistemologies, and modes of resistance, while remaining alert to the unintended consequences of global rights-based interventions. 

Paper abstract- Resource distribution and organisational cultures: Mobilising creative agencies collectively by Tanvir Alim 

Since the mid-1990s, international aid for HIV/AIDS prevention has played a pivotal role in shaping queer activism in South Asia. Legal restrictions on the transfer of foreign aid present significant barriers, yet since 2016, international development agencies have increasingly prioritised funding queer organisations in Bangladesh. This study is based on observations of four queer organisations across urban and regional locations in Bangladesh between 2022 and 2023. Data was collected using four different qualitative methods, shedding light on how these organisations secure funding through fiscal sponsorship arrangements. The paper highlights a critical tension in how queer collectives in Bangladesh navigate socio-political realities under the influence of transnational discourse. Western-centric LGBT+ rights frameworks often impose universalised notions of queerness that may not align with local cultural and political contexts. Hyper-nationalism, rooted in patriarchal and homophobic histories, continues to marginalise dissenting identities, reinforcing exclusionary narratives and authoritarian governance in the region. By examining these tensions, the paper will contribute to a deeper understanding of the complex interactions between international aid, queer activism, and hegemonic power structures of queer organising in Bangladesh. 

Paper abstract- Women at the crossroads of solidarities: from labour unions to NGO activism by Mitaja Chakraborty 

The decade of the 1980s and 1990s were synonymous with the aspirations of developing nations in South Asia, and particularly the Indian subcontinent, to grow into developed economies. Inevitably, this arrived in the form of expansion of manufacturing industries and developmental discourse. In the effort to build a nation, the state of Bangladesh capitalised on development aid available post liberation where women became an important constituency for development NGOs. While progressive women’s organisations and human rights defenders have pursued law and policy reform as their priority to establish the rights of women as equal citizens, this turned towards development also brought forth a professionalisation of women’s rights through the emergence of non-governmental organisations and politics. Availability of international donor funds meant rights discourse being dominated by projects that were time-bound and donor funded. The foreign aid and developmental projects therefore took over the language of rights. Drawing from personal interviews and ethnographic observations, this paper looks at the two keywords of the development discourse – visibility and empowerment – as interesting optic to further understand the connections and disconnections between the labour and women’s rights organising in Bangladesh historically. In that effort, the paper will primarily focus on the organisational contexts and activities of the women’s rights NGOs working within the garment sector to complicate the meanings of solidarity between the international and local activist spaces. 

Paper abstract- Bangladesh's international LGBTQ+ Politics in relation to the UK and the Commonwealth by Matthew Waites  

What is the relationship of LGBTQ+ politics in Bangladesh to transnational LGBTQ+ activism and governmental activity in the Commonwealth frame, after empire? This presentation will first outline how the British Empire shaped the current criminalisation of same-sex sexual acts in Bangladesh and summarise the current British government's approach to relevant international development aid for LGBTQ+ inclusion. It will then focus on transnational LGBTQ+ activism in the Commonwealth frame, drawing on existing Bangladeshi LGBTQ+ activist writing to demonstrate some participation in the Commonwealth Equality Network and at events such as the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Hence, some identifiable international agency of Bangladeshi LGBTQ+ activists in transnational networks needs to be recognised. It is then useful to situate and contextualise Bangladeshi LGBTQ+ politics - nationally and internationally - in relation to previous wider research and publications (including by the author) analysing and debating transnational LGBTQ+ activist strategies in the context of colonialities and colonial legacies. This can enable reflection on the specificities of how Bangladeshi LGBTQ+ activists are negotiating international contexts. 

First published: 1 April 2025

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