The interim leader of Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus, has told Sky News former prime minister Sheikh Hasina will stand trial for crimes against humanity. Ms Hasina is accused of overseeing a system of enforced disappearances during her time in government, as well as the mass killing of protesters in July and August last year.... Professor Yunus recently visited one of the now infamous secret jails, code-named the 'House of Mirrors.' The economics professor, known as the 'banker to the poor' and now chief adviser of Bangladesh, said he was beyond shocked at what he saw. "This is just the ugliest thing that you can see, you can feel, or you can observe," he said. —Sky News, March 5, 2025
As a Bangladeshi out of Bangladesh,
I’ll admit it felt too sudden for me,
Like the flipping of a switch.
I’ll admit it felt too sudden for me,
Like the flipping of a switch.
The flipping of a switch that sent them scurrying
Like rodents and roaches,
Leaving behind trails of their filth
And the crumbs they had hoarded.
Leaving the nation to unearth
Atrocities—buried and burrowed.
The audacity—
To give torture cells a poetic name:
Ayna Ghor—House of Mirrors
A glass prison that entrapped
Our fathers and brothers.
A name that reflected their distorted minds,
Their inner vermin.
But it all came to light, eventually—
Each shard of the mirror
Igniting flames and upheaval
Amongst a nation once plagued.
A nation that is free to denounce
A venomous matriarch
Without the fear of Ayna Ghor.
Arshi Mortuza is a Bangladeshi writer in her late 20s, currently based in Canada. She is the author of One Minute Past Midnight and is working on Pressed Flower, a manuscript exploring preservation and entrapment. She can be found on Instagram as @poetessarshi
