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psychichideoutpeace · 3 years

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My take on this foreign family’s intercultural and interpersonal problems

It was 31st August, Well I clearly remember the date because that's my girlfriend's birthday. I was chatting with her in messenger and planning about our upcoming date night and It was a pretty intense situation. The TV was turned on as background noise, i wasn't watching it. Suddenly Tv has all my attention because I heard someone is saying “amra bideshider shathe aageo bhasha niye lorai korechi abong joyi hoyechi, amader itihash ache bideshi der shathe bhashar jonno llorai korbar, uni amar meye ke bangla shikhte dey na” 2 young daughter of his holding his arm from both side while he was briefing the press. Few moments later that news made it to online news platforms and I have seen people going crazy in support of a man named Imran Sharif, no wonder why ?

Photo source : Google

Language itself in its raw form is not interesting, at least to me because I took it for granted. I have been using it since I started talking and no one stopped me from doing so. When I got to know at my early age that in 1952 people lost their lives in order to achieve the rights of speaking in our mother tongue, it straight away gave goosebumps and as I am writing this blog it's still the same feeling. So that's the strength and power of the “idea of our Bengali language” which can create larger spikes in all Bengalis' heart rate. So we are emotionally attached to this idea of our Bengali language and how this idea affects the behavior of people demonstrates real power. Now the question is why I am mentioning this ? because power yields people ! We have just seen cultural hegemony in action in the comment section of this news of Imran Sharif’s case. Let's look at what this case is all about and deconstruct it with the lens of cultural studies.

Photo source : Google

Eriko Nakano US-Japan holding citizenship and Imran Sharif holding US-BD Citizenship tied the knot on July 11, 2008, according to the law of Japan. Eriko is a physician and Imran Sharif is an It engineer, and has his own It firm. So they both belong to superstructure. They used to live in Tokyo and the couple has been blessed with three daughters aged 11, 10, and seven. The kids were studying at a school in Tokyo. On January 18, Imran appealed for divorce but it was held in processing because he didn't attend the hearing and left Japan later. Upon asking why did he file divorce, Imran replied to the press that Eriko and her father booked an apartment which costs around 2.7 million USD and Imran had to pay the major part of installment of US$ 3,800 monthly, Eriko was paying 2000$. Imran was facing a hard time in his business and proposed Eriko to move to the USA so that he can do better with his skill there and earn more money. But Eriko was not willing to move to the USA. Eriko said, pay the installment fees as rent because he was staying in that apartment but Imran was not generating enough cash to pay out the taxing 3,800 $ US monthly and he was not willing to pay this much amount from his savings for the property in which he was not even a stakeholder. Eriko then asked her husband Imran Sharif to leave that apartment. She even sent three legal notices to leave the home because Imran stopped paying the installment. This sounds more like straight out oppression and unequal treatment but I have seen many people who actually wear the feminist's badge on social media, blaming Imran as he is not paying the installment and why would he ask Eriko to move to the USA if his IT career and business is not doing good in Japan. We know feminism, which became the buzz word of the internet in the 21st century, is actually about the oppression of women by men and feminist's stand for equal rights and treatment. There are feminists and then pseudo-feminists come along.

Photo source : Google

Pseudo-feminism suggests that women deserve more respect, or people of other sexes do not deserve respect. Living in a culture where women face many challenges every day is the worst thing is that some people hurt the term feminism. On social media, hardly anyone knows about feminism and they end up being pseudo-feminist. Do pseudo-feminists really want equal treatment? No, they want to create a world governed only by women. Will a woman be getting away with any wrongdoing? Women on social media who identify themselves as feminists want equality and recognition for women they think to deserve it. They’re going to bash a woman if he’s their lesser wife or sister like a politician but they’re going to support a woman bashing that same political leader. Hypocrisy and pseudo-feminism get a melting pot here.

Feminism is simply about freedom and is not about judgment. People who recognize feminism don’t wear the feminist badge. These are the people who want a good education for their daughter, and support their companion if she wants to be working in the field. Some women want to give their husbands food; some women want to take more care of their house and children than work. That is not making them slaves; it is up to them to decide what to do.

After analyzing the available information, It feels more like there are pseudo feminism or women supremacy present in Eriko’s actions which build up to some degree and lead to the current situation. I am not entirely blaming her for anything and I am not here to judge anyone. I am just writing my take on this. Do humans only value other humans when they have jobs, money, status and are capable of paying for mortgages ? What about someone suddenly losing their job ? Let's break it down even further. What if men, husbands loses their job while wife is still working or earning more, will this make the man or husband lesser than who they are as human beings ? No right. Then why do the relationship and power dynamics takes a paradigm shift all of a sudden in these situations, I wonder why ?

As Marks describes, capitalist society will inevitably experience conflict between its social classes. The owners and the workers will have different ideas about the division of the wealth generated, and the owners will ultimately make the decision. This constant conflict, or dialectical materialism, is what instigates change. Marks also describes that the only real social division is class. Divisions of race, ethnicity, gender, and religion are artificial, devised by the bourgeoisie to distract the proletariat from realizing their unity and rebelling against their oppressors. Here in this case we see race, gender, religion, ethnicity and also social class differences between the proletariat Eriko and Imran.

In this case of Eriko and Imran, when Imran refused to pay for the mortgage of Eriko’s apartment, the relationship dynamic changed and Eriko wanted to evict Imran from the house.

On January 21, Imran filed an appeal to the school authorities to take one of his daughters but they refused following the objection of Eriko. Later, Imran picked up the other two daughters from the school bus to a rented building on February 21 and returned to Bangladesh with them.

On May 31, a court in Tokyo handed over the custody of the two daughters to Eriko. On July 18, Eriko came to Bangladesh in search of the custody of her daughters leaving behind their six years old daughter in Japan. Despite her report being negative, Imran did not believe the report and refused to meet her children. On July 26, Eriko’s mobile connection was cut and he was given the opportunity to meet the girls blindfolded. On 19 August, Nakano Eriko, filed a petition with the HC seeking its directives to return her two daughters Jasmine Malika,11, and Laila Lina, 10 from their Bangladeshi father Sharif Imran. The court then asked the authorities to present the two children before the court on August 31. It also asked Imran not to leave the country with his daughters for the next one month. At the directives of the court, Imran and Eriko, accompanied by their daughters, are living in a rented house in Gulshan 1 of Dhaka. The court will issue further directives over their dispute on 16 September. High court ordered them to stay under the same roof and suggested they figure out a mutual solution as these kids were staying in a victim support centre before. Lawyers were also suggesting the same.

Photo : Google

Now comes the interesting part, Why did Imran come to Bangladesh with his two daughters ? Eriko and Imran were married legally in Japan and there is a case going on about the legal custody in Japan’s court. Their daughters have Japanese citizenship. He was living in Japan and has US citizenship, so why Bangladesh ? Imran was saying in his press conferences that he won't get custody of the child in Japan’s court. Maybe to battle the ethnocentric advantage that Eriko had in Japan. But as these daughters are minors, In most cases the custody goes to mothers side. Maybe Imran made a calculated move that he will get the empathy of Bengali people as we have seen him saying to the press that Eriko takes these kids out whenever Imran tries to teach their daughters Bengali language. Bengali has a long history of fighting against foreigners for language. I found these statements of his, a bit over the top, dramatic and only to shape the public's point of view against Eriko.

If we analyze the situation carefully, we can see, Imran is using tools like cultural hegemony to get advantage as he is communicating and reaching out to the mass people through press conferences, YouTube channels and interviews. Imran is exercising the power of language and culture more efficiently. He is forging his words carefully and deliberately to get the empathy of the mass people and Bangladesh is the only place where he can have leverage over Eriko in this case because he is now identifying himself as Bengali and wearing it as a vanguard to defend anything that coming against him. In a interview he said to a journalist that “ I am a Bengali like you are and I have the rights of a citizen in my country, only my passport is American that doesn't mean I am not Bengali” Imran is using identity politics to create positive public opinion about him. He is trying to portray Eriko as “other” and not as the mother of their daughter. Also he is trying to create a us versus them situation with these statements so that public sentiment remains on his side. People have already made lots of propaganda videos against Eriko on their own Imran Sharif didn't tell them to do so, Its cultural hegemony in action.

On the other hand he has already sought Tk 50 million as compensation for revealing defamatory information about him from Eriko. Otherwise, he threatened to lodge a case against her over the matter. But we hardly have any detail explanation from Eriko’s side.

The future of three minor kids are now dependent on the dialogue and intent of their parents. The High Court on 16th September directed concerned lawyers to settle the custodial dispute between Bangladeshi father Imran Sharif and Japanese mother Nakano Eriko over their two daughters within 12 days and fixed September 28 for further hearing and delivering a final verdict on the matter but as of today there is no latest news available.

References :

High court sends 2 children of Japanese mother to support centre. (2021, August 23). Dhaka Tribune. https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2021/08/23/hc-sends-two-children-to-a-support-centre-as-parents-fight-over-their-custody

Https://www.risingbd.com. (2147). CID rescues two daughters of that Japanese woman. Risingbd Online Bangla News Portal. https://www.risingbd.com/english/national/news/81810

Japanese mother files petition with HC to remove CCTV cameras from residence. (2021, September 6). The Business Standard. https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/court/japanese-mother-files-petition-hc-remove-cctv-cameras-residence-298648

Japanese woman in HC for kids’ guardianship. (192021, August). New Age | The Most Popular Outspoken English Daily in Bangladesh. https://www.newagebd.net/article/146772/japanese-woman-in-hc-for-kids-guardianship

Japanese woman’s petition for daughters’ custody: HC asks father to present the children. (2021, August 19). The Daily Star. https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/crime-justice/news/japanese-woman-comes-bangladesh-starts-legal-battle-custody-daughters-2155956

জাপানি দুই শিশুর বিষয়ে যে আদেশ দিলেন হাইকোর্ট | বাংলাদেশ. (1970, January 1). Somoy News. https://www.somoynews.tv/news/2021-08-31/

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psychichideoutpeace · 3 years

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Call her Bengali not Bangladeshi

It was a gloomy day and raining heavy outside, I was in enjoying a tranquil time in my veranda sipping on a cup of smoking hot coffee in between scrolling my Facebook feed. Suddenly a post shared by a girl piqued my curiosity which says “Proud day for Bangladesh as she made it to MasterChef Australia, what are you doing girls?”

I knew that very moment that something is not right about this post as Australian immigration is not allowing foreigners to their country because of pandemic but I pressed pause on my curious mind for a second, I asked mother to cook kichuri for the lunch and started researching about this Bangladeshi who made it to MasterChef Australia in this pandemic situation.

After couple of google search I found that only Australian citizen and permanent resident can participate in MasterChef Australia. This lady named Kishwar Chowdhury, born and brought up in Melbourne Australia. She studied there and then in London. Her father is from Bangladesh and mother from Kolkata, India which makes her from Bengali origin but “Bangladeshi” ? no chance, she is Australian.

In a few days, the whole virtual space of Bangladesh flooded, Kishwar became the household name of Bangladesh and successfully became the topic of discourse. So back to the Facebook post of that girl confidently claiming Kishwar as ours who made it to MasterChef, taunting other girls with Kishwar’s success, trying to make other Bangladeshi girl questioning what they are doing maybe in a hope to inspiring the women to dream big and want to see empowered female gender, didn't know the fact about Kishwar’s nationality. But why ? lets find out.

Kishwar Chowdhury source : Google

First and foremost, Kishwar’s exhibition of recipes in MasterChef Australia. She presented Bengali traditional food like “Panta bhaat, alu bhorta, paan, mach bhat, kulfi, fuchka chotpoti and so on which every Bengali can relate, as these all are just our daily day to day choices of food, popular culture. When such normal food (for us) exhibited and won rounds in such a huge international platform like MasterChef, it instantly evokes the waves of emotions for most of the people. It feels great when we get validation of our work by others right ? Our traditional food, which is a big part of our Bengali culture is getting validated in the international platform, a proud moment for Bengali people. These Bengali recipes are passed on from her parents to her and she exhibited Bengali food gracefully proving once again, Culture is learned !

Furthermore, most of the Bangladeshi relating to and taking pride in her is because of her ethnicity. Majority of the people lives in Bangladesh are Bengali and absolutely delightful see Bengali food, which is again one of most important part of Bengali culture, got represented by a girl who belongs so same ethnic group.

Finally Kishwar is a symbol of hope, pride and success for the women around the world and specially for Bengali women as she went to MasterChef finale at the age 38, after getting married and having kids, representing Bengali day to day foods yet made it big is a big thing for Bangladeshi women Why ? because they are thinking of Kishwar as one of them. In Bangladesh, women lives in a patriarchal society and deprived of many human rights. Kishwar being Bengali made Bangladeshi women feel empowered.

All of the above factor worked for Kishwar to become extremely popular in Bangladesh. She also got popular in India and just like Bangladeshi people and media, Indian people and media is also clamming her as theirs because her mother is from Kolkata.

When a particularly important part of some culture gets international media coverage repetitively, it is spontaneously becomes big achievement for the people of that culture and they wants take pride in it. MasterChef is like the highest standard of food cooking competition. Seeing Bengali local day to day food making it to the finale of such international platform has a lot of positive impacts for Bengali culture. People around the world are now exposed to Bengali culture which is great for Bengali / Bangladeshi people.

Italian pasta, pizza internationally, “Bogura doi” locally doesn't need any introduction. It shows how food can become a dominant ambassador of a culture and how people of other culture can get hooked with it, which surpasses the man made borders.

To be continued ...

Reference :

Rahman, S. (2021, August 2). OP-ED: Is Kishwar ours? Dhaka Tribune. https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/08/02/op-ed-is-kishwar-ours

Is Kishwar of Bangladeshi or Indian heritage? Actually both. (2021, June 30). Dhaka Tribune. https://www.dhakatribune.com/showtime/2021/06/30/is-kishwar-of-bangladeshi-or-indian-heritage-actually-both

Indian news outlet mentions Bangladesh-origin MasterChef contestant Kishwar as ‘Indian’. (2021, June 28). The Daily Star. https://www.thedailystar.net/life-living/food-wellness/news/indian-news-outlet-mentions-bangladesh-origin-masterchef-contestant-kishwar-indian-2119953

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