Mohammad Shariful Alam Chowdhury, Cumilla : "Mama, when are you coming home? Everyone in school wrote letters for Mother's Day. I cried..."
Just one sentence — but it shattered my heart.
I am Fahima Begum Priya. Not just a journalist, but a mother. And today, on Mother’s Day, I am far from my two daughters — simply because I dared to speak the truth.
Born in Payab village of Muradnagar, Comilla, daughter of Ramiz Uddin and Parveen Akhter, I began my journalism career in 2020. My husband, Hafiz Shuaibul Hossain Shahjahan Munshi, is from Kaziatol village in the same upazila.
I have two daughters — Sadia Islam Saba, a sixth-grade student in a madrasa in Dhaka, and little Sabiha Islam, who attends nursery school.
This morning, I received a call from Saba. She whispered, “Mama, today in school everyone brought a letter for their moms. Where are you?”
I couldn’t answer. I couldn’t speak. My heart broke, but my voice froze.
Back on the morning of February 15, after receiving treatment at Comilla General Hospital, I was returning home. Around 8 a.m., I reached Panchpukuria bazaar and waited for a rickshaw near the bridge. Suddenly, two motorcycles pulled up, carrying four men.
Their crime? I had reported the truth.
In a piece titled “Drugs at Arm’s Reach in Daudkandi”, I exposed the drug network thriving in daylight.
The men blocked my way, hurled vile abuse, and shouted, “Why did you write that?” One of them grabbed my scarf, threw me to the ground, and they beat me mercilessly. I was physically assaulted, threatened with rape, abduction, even murder.
When I screamed for help, bystanders intervened, and the attackers fled. I was hospitalized, traumatized, and left terrified.
Since then, unknown numbers have flooded my phone. They threaten me — demanding I delete my reports or face death. I had no choice but to go into hiding.
Being a woman journalist in Bangladesh is a sin in the eyes of many. But being a mother who speaks the truth — that is apparently an even bigger crime.
My daughters don’t know where I am. They only know one thing:
“Mama is fighting for the truth.”
All I ask is this:
Let no other female journalist be punished like me. Let no other mother be forced to weep alone on Mother’s Day.
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