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"Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable," writes the pseudonymous street artist Banksy-a sentiment that encapsulates the spirit of graffiti's defiance.
On July 16, 2024, Abu Sayeed, an unarmed organizer of the students' movement for quota reform at Begum Rokeya University in Rangpur, was shot and killed by police as he stood with his arms stretched out, leaving his mother, Monowara Begum, shell-shocked and crying, "My son only wanted a job; if you don't want to give him a job, then don't but why did you kill him?"
Since the 1960s, graffiti in Bangladesh has served as a powerful voice for resistance. In 1966, student activists spray-painted slogans like "Down with Ayub Khan" on walls, using graffiti as a covert means of protest against a repressive regime. When military forces approached, they shouted "chika! chika!" a word meaning mole or muskrat pretending they were killing rodents to disguise their actions. This guerrilla tactic marked the beginning of graffiti as a tool of dissent in Bangladesh, and it played a crucial role in the Liberation War in 1971.
In recent times, graffiti has resurfaced as a powerful expression of dissent, particularly during the July uprising. Spray-painted messages like "The country is nobody's father's"-invoked the legacy of past movements, echoing the iconic "Gonotontro Mukti Paak" (Let Democracy Be Free), famously written on the body of protester Noor Hossain during the Ershad regime. Each stroke of paint carried forward a history of defiance that has shaped Bangladesh's political landscape, drawing connections between past and present struggles for justice.
What phrase did Noor Hossain paint on his body?
আপনি আমাকে যেকোনো প্রশ্ন করতে পারেন, যেমনঃ
Are you sure to start over?
