At around 11:45 pm on 18 December 2025, The Daily Star’s senior journalist Zyma Islam was preparing the lead report on Shaheed Osman Hadi. She wanted to ensure that the story did not miss the second edition.
Meanwhile, news arrived that extremists had attacked the office of Prothom Alo. After quickly submitting her report, Zyma headed to the first floor and saw the vandalism unfolding below. She did not lose her composure. In a brief Facebook post, she described the terrifying situation, “I can't breathe anymore. There's too much smoke. I'm inside. You are killing me.”
In her two decades of journalism, Zyma has had to face many challenges after all. During the previous Awami League government, she produced investigative reports on issues ranging from money laundering by the influential business group S Alam to serious human rights violations and enforced disappearances involving security forces.
Yet the events of that night surpassed everything she had previously experienced. Even then, Zyma chose not to harbour resentment. Instead, she prefers to treat the attack as another experience in her professional journey. “They are our readers too. They dislike us. They have the right to dislike us,” she said.
Asked how she stepped onto this difficult path, Zyma said she does not have a particularly inspirational story. “I started writing for magazines at the age of 15,” she explained. “I was still in school then. After classes, my friends would go out, but my mother would only give me enough money for the rickshaw fare. So I began writing to earn a little extra. I enjoyed writing. After school, I would go to the New Age office and write lifestyle articles.”
After completing her O Levels from Sunbeams, Zyma enrolled at the Asian University for Women in 2009. During her studies, she completed internships at The Daily Star, the World Bank and several other organisations. In 2012, she interned at The Daily Star for three months and joined the newspaper as a reporter the following year.
Journalism is inherently a risky profession, and for women it can be even more challenging. Early in her career, Zyma had to confront many such difficulties. Recalling those days, she said, “When I was a junior, I faced many challenges as a woman. Police officers harassed me. They would call late at night and say inappropriate things. I had to deal with these and keep moving forward.”
Sometimes, she noted, the risks do not fall directly on her but on those around her. “My sources are sometimes the ones who suffer. I might do a simple story, and then I find out my source has been transferred.” Over time, she added, reporters learn to handle such risks through experience.
Zyma believes many challenges for women still exist in newsrooms. According to her experience, one common issue is that supervisors hesitate to send women on reporting assignments due to security concerns.
“I faced this too,” Zyma said. She gave an example, “In December 2013, a Pir was murdered in Gopibagh area of Dhaka, late at night. Because of security concerns, the office did not want to send me. But I took the challenge and went to cover the incident at midnight.” Or they are underestimated. “Even now, there are not enough women in our newsroom,” she added.
For security reasons, her newsroom once withheld her name from a report she wrote on enforced disappearances. Zyma said that if the decision had been hers, she would have included her name.
“I would have knowingly put my name on it,” she said. “Even if I knew something could happen to me or to my family after publication, I would still have done it. Because when you do this work, you must understand the possible consequences and prepare yourself accordingly.”
In Zyma’s words, fear must be controlled. If fear controls a reporter, it becomes like an abyss that pulls them ever deeper.