Eid Mubarak

Eid Ul Fitar (the Feast of Fast Breaking) or the festival of fast breaking is the biggest Muslim festival. Eid is from the Arabic word ‘oud’ or ‘the return’ to signify, well the strength and the endurance to observe the return of Eid each year. Eid-ul-Fitr (Id al-Fitr) is linked with the Holy month of Ramadan. It means the end of the month of fasting (the first day of the month of Shawwal). Fasting or Roza starts at sunrise and lasts awaiting sunset. During this time no food or water is eaten or drank. The main theme behind Roza is to understand the difficulty of the poor and pledge to live a more significant and meaningful life. Prophet Mohammed said, "if a person observing fast does not shun untruth, his having given up eating and drinking is of little value. Such a person starves for nothing. And those who rise in the midnight to recite prayers but do not give up untruth and evil deeds, lose their sleep for nothing."

‘Fitr’ means a donation. It is given away to the poor and the needy people during Ramzan. Fitr is a must for every Muslim and each member of the family must contribute 1.75kg of wheat and 3.5kg of barley rice. Fitr is distributed to the poor people so that they can take care of their needs and celebrate Eid with the rest of the community. This day, for Muslims all over the world, brings rejoicing and happiness. The rejoicing is not, however, at the departure of the month of Ramadan; it is the happiness which anyone feels after successfully completing an important task. The festival is significant as much for its timing as for its religious implications. It is celebrated after the fasting month of Ramzan (the ninth month of the Muslim year), on the first day of the Shavval month of the Hijri year (Muslim year). It is believed that the Koran was revealed to Prophet Mohammed in the month of Ramzan. Eid is a great day of festival for Muslims. The Eid day is enjoying for those who simply put on new clothes and wear perfume. Gifts are exchanged. Friends and family gather to pray in worship.

Nari Jibon staff and students will celebrate the Eid Ul Fitar. Nari Jibon office and Blog posting activities will remain closed from 12th October, 2007 to 16th October, 2007 on account of celebrate Eid. We will restart our Blog activities from 17th October,2007. Eid Mubarak to Nari Jibon blog readers, staff, students and the people around the world.

Special Eid greetings to Dr. Kathryn B. Ward, Katie Zaman, Pat and Bill Ward (celebrating 55 years of marriage this month!), David Sasaki, Masud Zaman, Zeenat Chowdury, Lindsay Greer, Sandy Rosencrans, Rezwan and all grantees of Rising Voices.

Mafia- A successful student of Nari Jibon Organization

Written by: M. G. Rabbany Sujan

After completing tailoring and Bangla courses from Nari Jibon organization, Mafia set up a home based tailoring business with here her one elder sister. They were making dresses, collecting dress making orders from their neighboring people. But in last August 07, Mafia and her elder sister contracted with a famous Panjabi factory. They only stitch these Panjabies and receive 20 taka per panjabi. They can complete sewing at least 15 to 20 panjabis per day beside Mafia’s garment job. Now they are going on well.

Mafia is working at her home based business centre

Mafia with her mother and her elder sister

Mafia was a student of Nari Jibon organization. She is 20 years old. She could not study at her early life due to poverty. She lost her father at her childhood. Her mother and elder sister somehow used to maintain their family. Her mother worked as housemaid and one of her elder sister worked in a garment factory. She grew up in very difficulties due to scarcity of money. She had to also work in the garment factory at her early life as a helper. Once she was fired from the garment factory due to young age. One of her elder sister who maintained their family fell in sick and gave up working in the garment factory. Then Mafia joined in a garment factory again and her younger brother joined in a grocery shop as a salesman. But she did not get promotion as she was illiterate. Their family used to depend on her and her younger brother’s small income. Her mother also became sick and weak. Later her elder sister started to work in a tailoring shop. Her elder sister is an expert tailoring master but she can not work long time at a stretch due to her sickness. Mafia and her younger brother were maintaining their family in very difficulties. Mafia’s elder sister heard about Nari Jibon organization from a field worker of Nari Jibon and she sent Mafia to the Nari Jibon office. After visiting Nari Jibon office Mafia was interested to learn Bangla and tailoring courses from Nari Jibon organization. But it was difficult to take these classes from Nari Jibon office instead of earning money. She informed her situation and expectation to the Chairman (Dr. KBW) of Nari Jibon organization, who had seen Mafia coming to the office during her lunch break in the garment factory to study Bangla. Then Mafia got a great chance to take skills from Nari Jibon organization. She used to receive 3700 per month and she used to learn and Bangla and tailoring skills from Nari Jibon organization without any charges. Mafia got scope to learn skills and received money for 9 months. In this period she completed Bangla and Tailoring courses. As she had to pass whole office time in the training centre, she got more time to learn these skills. After completing her course and she was able to read and write Bangla, some easy math and English. She was also able to sew various kinds of three pieces, kid’s dresses, women dresses, fotua, Panjabi etc. Mafia was also able to save some money when she was receiving money from Nari Jibon office. She also received a sewing foot machine and some money to set up home based tailoring business. She bought an electric/ plain sewing machine for her younger sister. After completing her course from Nari Jibon office, she set up home based tailoring business with her elder sister. But it was not easy task to earn more running home based tailoring business. Then she went to take a job in a garment factory. This time she got easily a job in a garment factory as an operator as she was not an illiterate anymore. And her salary was held 2500 taka excluding overtime money. Last month she earned 4000 taka including over time money. After completing her course at Nari Jibon, Mafia got married with a young man who is working in a marketing company as a salesman. But still now she is living with her birth family. Mafia is very grateful to Nari Jibon office as she was much helped to change her life.

The Royal Bengal Tiger

Written by: Sahana Akter Munia

Tigers are the largest members of the cat family. The Royal Bengal Tiger is the pride of Bangladesh. When we speak of wildlife, the first name that comes to our mind is ‘The Royal Bengal Tiger’. It is the national beast of Bangladesh.

The Royal Bengal Tiger was aptly named by the British as has been known to grow to a body length of more than 2m. It has extraordinary strength and agility. It has a life span of 16 years. It preys on deer, boars and fish stranded on riverbeds at low tide. A hungry tiger can eat as much as 27 kilograms in one night. You would be surprised to know that most tigers avoid humans. Tigress generally gives birth to litters of two to six cubs and raises them without any help from the male tiger. It is only in old age, when it has lost its physical agility and its canine fangs that it sometimes preys on workers in the area.

There are thought to be roughly 400 tigers remaining in the Sundarbans. It is interesting to note that no two tigers have exactly the same stripes.

Every year there are reports of people in the Sundarbans getting eaten by tigers, so the locals are terribly afraid of them and with good reason.

The Tiger is a magnificent, powerful, and courageous animal. Now-a-days it is found only in the Sundarbans. Once upon a time they would found in Sylhet, Chittagong Hill Tracts and the Madhupur Jungles. The Royal Bengal tigers also live in India and are sometimes called Indian tigers. About half of all wild tigers consist of Bengal tigers.

A Rainy Day of my Life

Written by Helen Sarker

I am Helen Sarker. I think rainy Season is the best season of all seasons. I would like to share a rainy day of my life.

One day I started my journey with my two friends to go to Nari Jibon Project. We are the students of Nari Jibon in English and Computer section. On that day the sky was very cloudy. Suddenly the rain started and we had already left our home. We were getting late for the class. We were looking for a rickshaw. But we didn’t get any. We were just walking and walking. There were water every where and traffic jam occurred on the road. The road became muddy. All of us got wet in the rain. The people were looking at us strangely. It was an embarrassing moment. After two hours we got rickshaw and entered in the class. Then we found, the class already had finished. It was a good experience for me. Cause in the rainy day I wished to wet in the rain. But I couldn’t if I remain at home.

Personally I like rainy day because on this day I can spare my time at home by listening music, watching TV, and reading story books.

Bangladesh has six seasons. Rainy season is one of those. It remains for Ashar and Srabon [Bengali Months]. Nature becomes clean and fresh in the rain. Many beautiful flowers bloom in the Rainy season. I like this season very much.