Dhaka, Dec 24 Exiled Bangladeshi author and human rights activist Taslima Nasreen on Wednesday said that the interim government's chief advisor Muhammad Yunus' tenure has been marked by grave and widespread human rights violations across the South Asian nation.
Slamming Yunus on the human rights abuses in Bangladesh, Nasreen took to her social media platform X and stated, "Credible reports indicate that mob violence, lynching, and communal attacks have occurred with alarming regularity -- often on a near-daily basis. Under his watch, women in Bangladesh are raped, silenced, intimidated, and terrorised, even as he lectures the international community on women's economic empowerment."
She highlighted that Yunus, founder of the New York-based nonprofit microfinance organisation Grameen America, has served as a Director and co-chair and has received compensation from the organisation for at least the past four years.
"He flies first class, collecting global accolades, while profiting from the indebtedness of poor Hispanic and Black women in the United States through Grameen America. While he speaks on global stages about empowering women entrepreneurs, Bangladeshi garment workers are driven into destitution as factories are burned and livelihoods destroyed by forces aligned with his supporters," she added.
Expressing concern, Nasreen stated that as Yunus celebrates "economic independence" in America, women in Bangladesh are beaten, coerced into hijab, stripped of freedom of movement, and denied even the most basic safety and dignity. She said, "This is not empowerment but moral duplicity."
Nasreen called on major donors to Grameen America to immediately re-evaluate their support, and on all governments funding the organisation to reconsider their positions.
"Yunus's continued leadership raises profound ethical and legal concerns, as his actions and inaction are enabling crimes that may amount to genocide against religious and ethnic minorities," she stressed.
Additionally, she urged individuals, institutions, and funding bodies to formally contact Grameen America and all affiliated organisations to demand that they sever all ties with Yunus, warning that "silence and continued association constitute complicity" in ongoing human rights abuses.
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