Not Here For

26/06/2021

Wrapping up our series with this story of a transwoman's journey to liberation.

10/06/2021

What makes you angry?

As we prepare for season 2, we take a look back at the episodes of Not Here For's first season. For the first episode of our feminine rage series, we asked activists across generations what makes them angry.

Living and operating in a system designed against us, everything invokes so much rage and pain. And this anger is either denied or allowed based on factors such as gender, class, and ethnicity.

But this rage is valid and powerful. This rage has mobilised communities and destabilised patriarchal and discriminatory systems. Watch this episode of the Feminine Rage series to explore how rage manifests in different political and personal circles of our being, how different age groups understand and work with it, and the several layers of injustice that makes us angry.

To watch episode 3, Not Here For: Denying Feminine Rage, An Intergenerational Perspective,
go on our YouTube channel : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm0CkFN_BJ_t1ar3AzPzj9w

or find us on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/46Y6s1IKgU01Fi64aPqZD2?si=6utM4ddJSv2pOpcH1lsRNA&nd=1

02/06/2021

Part 1 of our series, ‘নারীত্ব: Telling stories of Womanhood’, a an audio visual collection of experiences by Kotha.

Give it a watch/listen and let us know if you resonate!

29/05/2021

We have been working so hard and we’re so thrilled to finally launch our series, ‘নারীত্ব: Telling stories of Womanhood.’ This will be an audio visual collection of experiences by Kotha in partnership with the Goethe-Institut Bangladesh, Bonhishikha, and Naripokkho. Kotha is a feminist organisation fighting root causes of gender-based violence in Bangladesh.

We asked six Bangladeshis who, regardless of their gender, felt any connection to womanhood and to experiences of womanhood,
• How would you define womanhood?
• How has your perception of womanhood evolved over time?
• How has womanhood affected your lived experience?
• Do you draw strength from womanhood? How?

Their answers have been interpreted by an artist () to provide a full audio-visual experience.

In line with Kotha’s mission of strengthening feminist movements in Bangladesh, especially by engaging young feminists, we thought of this project to further explore womanhood and people’s intr**ersonal relationship with womanhood. We hope to expand critical feminist discourse beyond conversations about women towards conversations about the broader experience of womanhood. With perspectives from people with different gender identities, backgrounds and at different stages of life, we want to archive the different meanings of womanhood for people in Bangladesh. We hope that this project helps expand our understanding of gender and gendered experiences and ultimately pushes us to confront our assumptions when it comes to gender inclusion.

Kotha is excited to announce that we have partnered with our friends from three wonderful organizations who have been doing important work in this area - Bonhishikha, Naripokkho and the Goethe-Institut. Naripokkho is a pioneer of the feminist movement in Bangladesh with immense contribution in areas of VAW, sexual health, economic and political empowerment. Bonhishikha has been using theater to engage society in important conversations around gender and sexuality and challenge gender norms. The Goethe-Institut has been working to support initiatives that promote cultural understanding with recent work in creating feminist podcasts, libraries and projects surrounding the concept of gender. We would like to thank them for their continued support throughout this process.

Art by Meheruba Hasin

[Image description: The poster is built around the headline, নারীত্ব, which is at the centre and below it says “Telling stories of womanhood”. The poster has Bangla alpona inspired design contrasted with bold graphic shapes like triangles, squares, circles of different sizes spread across the poster in different dimensions in no specific pattern.]

See Less

We have been working so hard and we’re so thrilled to finally launch our series, ‘নারীত্ব: Telling stories of Womanhood.’ This will be an audio visual collection of experiences by Kotha in partnership with the Goethe-Institut Bangladesh, Bonhishikha, and Naripokkho.

We asked six Bangladeshis who, regardless of their gender, felt any connection to womanhood and to experiences of womanhood,
• How would you define womanhood?
• How has your perception of womanhood evolved over time?
• How has womanhood affected your lived experience?
• Do you draw strength from womanhood? How?

Their answers have been interpreted by an artist () to provide a full audio-visual experience.

In line with Kotha’s mission of strengthening feminist movements in Bangladesh, especially by engaging young feminists, we thought of this project to further explore womanhood and people’s intr**ersonal relationship with womanhood. We hope to expand critical feminist discourse beyond conversations about women towards conversations about the broader experience of womanhood. With perspectives from people with different gender identities, backgrounds and at different stages of life, we want to archive the different meanings of womanhood for people in Bangladesh. We hope that this project helps expand our understanding of gender and gendered experiences and ultimately pushes us to confront our assumptions when it comes to gender inclusion.

Kotha is excited to announce that we have partnered with our friends from three wonderful organizations who have been doing important work in this area - Bonhishikha, Naripokkho and the Goethe-Institut. Naripokkho is a pioneer of the feminist movement in Bangladesh with immense contribution in areas of VAW, sexual health, economic and political empowerment. Bonhishikha has been using theater to engage society in important conversations around gender and sexuality and challenge gender norms. The Goethe-Institut has been working to support initiatives that promote cultural understanding with recent work in creating feminist podcasts, libraries and projects surrounding the concept of gender. We would like to thank them for their continued support throughout this process.

Art by Meheruba Hasin

[Image description: The poster is built around the headline, নারীত্ব, which is at the centre and below it says “Telling stories of womanhood”. The poster has Bangla alpona inspired design contrasted with bold graphic shapes like triangles, squares, circles of different sizes spread across the poster in different dimensions in no specific pattern.]

18/04/2021

NOT HERE FOR denying young people their right to information that is helpful for them.

Check out our video to see how our Kotha at School program has been creating safe spaces for young people to learn about critical topics such as consent, bystander intervention, gender.

17/03/2021

Curated by our team for


Check out the rest of the series on Kotha's page!

08/02/2021

THANK YOU to everybody who already applied. We are looking forward to reading your applications.

If you have not applied already, the deadline is LESS than a week away on 14th February!

We are very pleased to announce that we are looking for new members to add to our Kotha Family, in the Social Media and Communications team.

At Kotha, we are always on the look-out for driven, creative individuals who are passionate about bringing long term change in our society. For this role, we want someone who has outstanding communication and design skills, along with a strong understanding of using social media as a tool for advocacy. If that sounds like you, sign up now!

You can find details about this role through the application here: ( available in both BANGLA and ENGLISH)
https://forms.gle/vrR3FJvUQjjaEt676

‼️ANNOUNCEMENT‼️

Deadline: 14 February

We are very pleased to announce that we are looking for new members to add to our Kotha Family, in the Social Media and Communications team.

At Kotha, we are always on the look-out for driven, creative individuals who are passionate about bringing long term change in our society. For this role, we want someone who has outstanding communication and design skills, along with a strong understanding of using social media as a tool for advocacy. If that sounds like you, sign up now!

You can find details about this role through the application here: ( available in both BANGLA and ENGLISH)
https://forms.gle/vrR3FJvUQjjaEt676

02/02/2021

‼️ANNOUNCEMENT‼️

Deadline: 14 February

We are very pleased to announce that we are looking for new members to add to our Kotha Family, in the Social Media and Communications team.

At Kotha, we are always on the look-out for driven, creative individuals who are passionate about bringing long term change in our society. For this role, we want someone who has outstanding communication and design skills, along with a strong understanding of using social media as a tool for advocacy. If that sounds like you, sign up now!

You can find details about this role through the application here: ( available in both BANGLA and ENGLISH)
https://forms.gle/vrR3FJvUQjjaEt676

18/01/2021

Thank you for all the feedback, love and support you have given to our first season. Now, onwards to a brand new era with even more exciting, bold discourse.

Watch this space for Season 2!

24/12/2020

🚨🚨SEASON FINALE ALERT🚨🚨

SEASON 1 of Not Here For comes to an end with our last episode of the FEMININE RAGE series!

Episode 8 is a vulnerable take on the anger that we are denied every day. The denying, shaming, and ridiculing of our rage are present in every inch of our lives-from media's influence to the broader Bengali culture. Media's influence has been an overbearing force in setting certain narratives in place-about femmes as unidimensional secondary characters, about angry women who are ultimately miserable or destroyed, and the ideal woman or the sacrificial lamb.

In this emotional discussion, we dissect this portrayal of feminine rage in media and literature, and how it shapes our societal interactions. Our homes, our social circles, and our online presence are places where we feel these influences. And we think about taking up space in those places today.

We reminiscence about the shows we watched, and the books we read. We honor the angry women in our history and the anger we hold. And most importantly, we share personal stories about growing up in a culture of silence and violence.

Join us for one last time, in rage.

**e

This episode and series are a collaboration with BRAC JPGSPH and CREA.

24/12/2020

Aruba Adil is a writer and psychosocial volunteer currently majoring in psychology at Taylor's University.

Tune in TONIGHT 9PM to hear her insight on Feminine Rage in Culture, Media and Literature.

24/12/2020

Sagorika Haque is a 3rd year Political Science & Gender, Race, and Social Justice student at UBC. Working at intersections of human rights, environmental (in)justice, displacement, inequality, and decolonization, she is a lifelong passionate feminist and educational facilitator, currently a researcher for both Scholars at Risk and the UBC Climate Justice Research Collaborative.

Tune in TONIGHT 9PM to hear her talk about Feminine Rage in Culture, Media and Literature.

24/12/2020

Tune in tonight at 9 PM on our page to hear a passionate, young panel talk about Feminine Rage in the influences they had growing up!
**e

23/12/2020

Believe Survivors

Check out the full post on Kotha page

**eculture

21/12/2020

🚨 New Episode 🚨
Not Here For : Denying Feminine Rage | In Public and Private Spaces

In the 7th episode of our Feminine Rage series, we establish how political and personal lives are not binary, and our anger is often the intersection. We ask who is allowed to be angry, and in which spaces. Watch the discussion to hear about how the mainstream feminism movement is not a safe space for intersectional anger, and how men often decide they get to be angry FOR us.

This episode is about how feminine rage SHAPED politics. From garments workers taking the streets demanding their deserved pay to flooding social media during the movement, attention was brought to important discussions when women got angry. We have the right to vote and work because one day, somewhere in the world, a woman was furious.

We want to emphasize why that’s precisely why women are denied rage so profusely by society. Because it is a smoke signal, meaning that we’re aware of the injustice happening to us. Moreover, we want to point out how female politicians are often framed as ‘hysterical’ and ‘ugly’ when they’re assertive/critical.

21/12/2020

Durdana Farid is a Curriculum Developer at Oroddho Foundation ().

Oroddho Foundation is a non-profit working on issues of social injustice such as gender discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual violence, and religious and ethnic discrimination. Their current mission is to fight these issues by spreading awareness and arming people with knowledge.

You can take a look at their work here: https://oroddhofoundation.org/

Tune in TONIGHT 9PM to hear her insight on Feminine Rage in the Public and Private spaces.

21/12/2020

Tune in TONIGHT at 9PM to hear this incredible panel discuss Feminine Rage in the Private and Public Spaces surrounding us.

**e

21/12/2020

Umama Zillur is the Founder and Director of Kotha Bangladesh, and a Research Associate at PPRC.

Kotha is a feminist organization tackling root causes of gender-based violence in Bangladesh through primary interventions. Kotha was developed under the Clinton Global Initiative and won the Mount Holyoke College Social Innovation Fund. Kotha's flagship program, Kotha at School, has impacted 500 students across middle school and highschool till date.

You can check out Kotha’s work at these links:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/cholokothaboli?igshid=17kinbo1sq1wg

All Links: https://l.instagram.com/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fbio.fm%2Fkotha&e=ATN6XTCJMnVHFdb8D0SQVVhQMGZhJUj39FvCpfua-j7vsFMYKptwSjC1GvYiZ0ACP0wbs7OUIIZXD6eBuaZ66w&s=1

Tune into our EPISODE TONIGHT at 9PM to hear her on Feminine Rage in public and private spaces.

**e

12/12/2020

Ahona Hassan on the latest episode of our Feminine Rage series.
"Not Here For: Denying Feminine Rage | The Legal Battle"

🚨 Watch the full episode on our page here: https://bit.ly/2W0OXtT
🚨 Watch all episodes of the series on the "Kotha Bangladesh" YouTube channel here:
https://youtu.be/KGxXFAgF8xg

This series was developed in collaboration with BRAC and CREA.
**e

12/12/2020

Kamrun Nahar on the latest episode of our Feminine Rage series.
"Not Here For: Denying Feminine Rage | The Legal Battle"

🚨 Watch the full episode on our page here: https://bit.ly/2W0OXtT

🚨 Watch all episodes of the series on the "Kotha Bangladesh" YouTube channel here:
https://youtu.be/KGxXFAgF8xg

This series was developed in collaboration with BRAC and CREA.

**e

10/12/2020

Abdullah Titir the latest episode of our Feminine Rage series.

"Not Here For: Denying Feminine Rage | The Legal Battle"

Watch the episode here: https://bit.ly/2W0OXtT

Find full episodes of Not Here For on:

🚨 the "Kotha Bangladesh" YouTube channel here:
https://youtu.be/c1JSurFPNi4

🚨 our page:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=352372679375314

This series was developed in collaboration with BRAC and CREA.

**e

02/12/2020

We are going live tonight at 9 for episode 3 of Not Here For: Denying Feminine Rage!

02/12/2020

Tune in tonight at 9 pm for episode 3!

24/11/2020

দেখা হবে মুক্তির মিছিলে

Event page: https://fb.me/e/QmlMHYny

16/11/2020

Shireen Huq on Episode 01 of our Feminine Rage series.

"Not Here For: Denying Feminine Rage | An Intergenerational Perspective"

Find the full episode on:

🚨 the "Kotha Bangladesh" YouTube channel here:
https://youtu.be/c1JSurFPNi4

🚨 our page:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=352372679375314

This series was developed in collaboration with BRAC and CREA.

**e

16/11/2020

Muktasree Chakma on Episode 01 of our Feminine Rage series.

"Not Here For: Denying Feminine Rage | An Intergenerational Perspective"

Find the full episode on:

🚨 the "Kotha Bangladesh" YouTube channel here:
https://youtu.be/c1JSurFPNi4

🚨 our page:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=352372679375314

This series was developed in collaboration with BRAC and CREA.

**e

16/11/2020

Sudeshna Biswas on Episode 01 of our Feminine Rage series.

"Not Here For: Denying Feminine Rage | An Intergenerational Perspective"

Find the full episode on:

🚨 the "Kotha Bangladesh" YouTube channel here:
https://youtu.be/c1JSurFPNi4

🚨 our page:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=352372679375314

This series was developed in collaboration with BRAC and CREA.

**e

11/11/2020

Kaneta Zillur on Episode 02 of our Feminine Rage series:
"Not Here For: Denying Feminine Rage | Across All Spheres of Work"

Watch the live on our page here:
https://www.facebook.com/nott.herefor/videos/281014889900469/

This series was developed in collaboration with BRAC and CREA.

**e

10/11/2020

Arpita Das on Episode 02 of our Feminine Rage series:
"Not Here For: Denying Feminine Rage | Across All Spheres of Work"

Watch the live on our page here:
https://www.facebook.com/nott.herefor/videos/281014889900469/

This series was developed in collaboration with BRAC and CREA.

**e

09/11/2020

Bringing back Kotha's post from last year's 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence campaign in light of our latest episode, Not Here For: Denying Feminine Rage | Across All Spheres of Work

Check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/nott.herefor/videos/281014889900469

Following up on the most recent post of our 'Culture of Violence' series, here is a compilation of 16 DON'Ts that we must ALL employ in our workplaces to create a culture free from harassment and violence.

Make sure to hold yourselves, and those around you accountable!

Watch our latest podcast episode on this issue here: https://www.facebook.com/cholokothaboli/videos/281016456566979

Check out our R**e Culture in Workplaces post here: https://www.facebook.com/189656561450119/posts/1110135106068922/


**eculture