In 2013, Bangladesh, one of the South Asian countries came in the news for a garment-factory collapse. The disaster took lives of 1,129 workers.It is one of the countries making clothes for Macy's, Walmart, J.C. Penney, Gap, Calvin Klein and many other reputable brands.But grass is always greener on the other side.
The citizens of Bangladesh seem to prefer clothes made in their neighboring country, India. The craze is far hotter than we can imagine. On July 28th, Muslims around the globe started celebrating Islamic festival, Eid al-Fitr .One specific custom tied to this festival is wearing all new clothes. Shopping begins a few days before Eid.
With Muslims making up the majority of population, Bangladesh too enjoys the spree.This time, however, things went one step too far. The dilemma of shopping caused suicides and one divorce. How and why it happened will not fail to shock anyone. It was not similar to door buster deaths we see every year after Thanksgiving.
Recently, one of its soap operas went popular in Bangladesh not because of its story, but fashion. Bangladeshi women were captivated by the female character's fashion sense, giving India a business opportunity. Titled as Pakhi (name of the soap opera character), the fashion line was introduced to Bangladesh prior to Eid. There was just one problem. The dresses were too expensive for the average Bangladeshi. Yet the fever did not die. In fact, it turned lethal.
Some days before Eid, a 15 year old named Shela Khatun urged her parents to get her one of those Pakhi dresses. Her father did shop for her something new, but it was not Pakhi. Outraged and disappointed by what she was given, Miss Khatun got into a severe argument with her father. In the end, she took her life by hanging herself in her bedroom few hours before the Islamic festival started. Yes, we know teens are not capable of understanding the reality of the world. They can be sometimes immature, but wait, adults sometimes behave in the same way.
During that same period in another Bangladeshi location, storm brewed between wife Rina and husband Tajul Islam Chunnu because of that same fashion line. Rina kept forcing her husband to get her the Pakhi dress. Not able to take this any longer, Mr Chunnu ended up committing suicide on 29th July. Another Bangaldeshi couple ended up heading towards divorce. The reason given was Pakhi fashion line. There are reports of more suicides, but no estimate is available.
Angered by the chaos caused by the fashion line, many Bangladeshis are now urging their government to ban Indian channels. A hackers named Tanjim Al Fahim have taken the website of Bangladesh Copyright department in his clutch to compel the government to begin banning them. He belongs to a group called Cyber-71 which happens to be similar to global hackers' community Anonymous.
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