Shadhin rises up for women

Mugdha Chandrika and Bishal Akash

On the occasion of the International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women that was observed on 25th November, musicians, actors and actresses stood up to show their support for women in an event titled 'Rise up for women' that was organized by Radio Shadhin 92.4 FM and UNDP at Senate building of Dhaka University

Radio Shadhin and UNDP presenting 'Rise up for women" (Photo: Mugdha Chandrika)

The Head of the Program of Radio Shadhin, Rushnaf Wadud said: "This event is for the women who have been hurt at a point or who have faced violence. We are working on events for women because we believe in equal rights of women, we want them to live with liberty."
He added: "The moment we believe that we are male, we get to a point to hurt women as it is a male dominated society, so we are trying to make that stop, We even had organized a rally for this objective 2 years back where we painted a woman's picture on a wall and cracked a portion to show that you can mend the wall but not the wound."

The event is trying to bring solutions that can be helpful for women, where they brought policy makers to work on them.
Radio Jockey of Radio Shadhin, Nazir Hossain said: "We are trying to give messages to all of the women so that they feel safe in our country, and we want them to utilize the helpline that our government has provided for people who is in unsafe situation. We want them to know about their rights to use them."

One of the organizers shared how social media has been an effective medium to spread such initiatives.
Youth Volunteer of UNDP, Palki Ahmed said: "These are the media initiatives in a sense where facebook, twitter and radio as well have always been important mediums to spread the awareness messages. These mediums create a great impact on the youth and we have chosen radio as our medium as youths listen to radio."
'We are youth ourselves and I get to see my male colleagues are stepping towards the cause as well which shows that we believe in equality of men and women, and we are also trying to collaborate with other youths for this." She added.

The event has brought some of the bands to celebrate women power, in which Chirkut was one of them. A member of the band said to learn to respect women first and take responsibility of  protecting them.
The vocal of the Chirkut band, Pinto Ghosh said: "I want that the awareness should not only spread within Dhaka but within the country as well. I believe that people should respect women and not hurt them. People do not know how to talk to women properly so it is important to make them realize their mistake."

One of the audiences Mayeesha Rabbani thinks such events help people to bring a difference in society in case of protecting women,
She said: "The more we get event like this, the more we get to spread the message of stopping violence. This kind of events help you change your thoughts, though it will take time but it can bring a difference gradually."

The event 'Rise up for women' has been organized by Radio Shadhin 92.4 FM in partnership with UNDP Bangladesh which took place on 1st December at Senate building of Dhaka University. Bands like Chirkut, Joler Gan and other artists showed up and performed live in the program. Besides actor and actresses like Aly Zaker, Joya Ahsan, Sara Zaker, Rafiath Rashid Mithila, Deputy Commissioner of Victim Support Center Farida Yasmin also attended the program to show their support and stand up for women. Besides they also organized an art competition for children to celebrate womanhood.