Badhon is not the first victim. Who will be next?

Badhon travelled to Italy to attend the screening of The Difficult Bride at the 83rd Venice Film Festival. What a matter of pride. Bangladesh's film industry has been on the wane for the last few decades, so when films such as The Difficult Bride, Rehana Maryam Noor, Bonolata Express or Barir Naam Shahana make it to major international film festivals in Cannes, Venice and elsewhere, it feels almost like a revanche, a reclaiming of lost glory. It puts Bangladesh on the contemporary global cultural map.

Actress Azmeri Haque Badhon herself deserves enormous credit in this regard. She has delivered stellar performances in several films, including Bonolata Express, Rehana Maryam Noor and The Difficult Bride, as well as in the Bollywood thriller Khufiya.

It was therefore shocking, horrific and shameful when, on 7 September, Badhon was physically assaulted, abused and humiliated while taking a walk with her brother and his family in a park in Mestre, near Venice. This was neither a racist attack nor a mugging. It was an attack specifically directed at Badhon.

Badhon had been a vocal activist during the anti-fascist movement in 2024 that ousted then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her party, Awami League, from power after 15 years of oppression, corruption and a politics of fear. While many in the cultural sphere had made millions as Hasina sycophants, Badhon took to the streets. She was brash, bold and outspoken.

Many Awami League loyalists fled the country with the money they had made, unwilling to face the consequences of their alleged crimes. And it was such political grifters who, as evidence shows, attacked Badhon in that park. They physically assaulted her, abused her and shoved her around, reportedly not even sparing her terrified little nephew. They called her a terror of the August movement and hurled insults at her.

Who were these despicable attackers? They were reportedly Awami League activists in Italy, and several have since been identified.

And Badhon, being Badhon, did not take it lying down. She neither shrank in fear nor attempted to brush the incident aside. She is determined to bring the perpetrators to book. After all, it is not only she who is at stake. Anyone and everyone who stood up against Hasina and her regime risks becoming a target if these political elements are allowed to seek petty revenge with impunity.

There has been an outpouring of protest in Bangladesh against this heinous act. The government, too, has taken measures to ensure that those responsible are identified and brought to justice.

Artistes, cultural activists, people from the film industry and people from all walks of life have protested against this despicable incident. They have demonstrated, demanded justice and stood by Badhon's side.

What is unfortunate, however, is the silence of many big names in the cultural field, and in the media, who spent decades reaping the benefits of their loyalty to the Awami-Hasina establishment. Their silence amounts to passive aggression.

Only recently, some of them have begun crawling out of the woodwork, cautiously edging their way back into the public eye: attending one event, appearing at another, hobnobbing with the media and gradually reclaiming their place in the cultural scene. Yet there appears to be little semblance of remorse. Not a word of solidarity for Badhon.

These are the so-called cultural icons who once presented themselves as guardians of Bangladesh's sociocultural sphere. They were overflowing with self-righteousness. Anything that did not conform to their particular understanding of culture was condemned as anti-cultural, narrow-minded or worse. They were willing to embrace the cultures of their political allies when it suited their mindsets and, perhaps, their wallets, while dismissing anything else as oposangskriti, or corrupted culture.

So, is beating up Badhon a healthy expression of culture? Is protesting against enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, crime and corruption something that should be equated with narrow-minded or illiberal values?

Interestingly, Badhon is no conservative woman draped in a hijab. She is known for her bold blouses and daring fashion choices. She has a style unmistakably her own.

But, most importantly, she is a woman of substance.

Similar incidents have occurred in other countries, where Awami activists allegedly lurk around seeking petty revenge. Eggs have been thrown at NCP leaders in London; leaders and supporters of the August uprising have reportedly been manhandled in New York. And, like the cowards they are, some of these Leaguers have found a particularly fertile ground on social media, where they unleash their pent-up frustration and anger in the crudest manner possible.

This cannot be tolerated. The attackers of Badhon must be arrested and punished. Exemplary punishment is essential. Legal action must be taken. Those responsible must answer for their actions, whether they are in Bangladesh or abroad. Political affiliation cannot become a shield against accountability.

After all, Badhon is not the first victim of these political pariahs, and she will not necessarily be the last. Instead of waiting to see who will be next, they must be stopped now.

The government has both the responsibility and the means to act, through its legal and executive powers, as well as through determined, effective diplomatic efforts.

But responsibility does not rest with the government alone. Each and every one of us has a duty to condemn such behaviour. Smirking at such incidents, dismissing them as political squabbles or hiding behind the convenient cloak of "neutrality" is not acceptable. It is cowardice. It is a failure of basic human values.

Badhon, we are with you. Stand tall.

* Ayesha Kabir is the head of Prothom Alo English Online.