Dhaka Lit Fest celebrates gender equality

Curtains fell on the 10th edition of Dhaka Lif Fest on Sunday. Many of the discussions throughout the four-day festival focused on gender issues. The speakers were eloquent and emphatic at those sessions.

Apart from the discussions, there were more ways of raising awareness on the issue of gender equality at the fest. There were different stalls with unique ideas to promote gender equality and raise awareness among the visitors of Dhaka Lit Fest.

There was a stall with a confusing name, 'Kintu Keno, But Why' with a bright red question mark. Curious people visiting the stall could find different memes and notes stuck on the walls there.

This was an initiative of Brac aimed at raising awareness about gender equality. In fact, they were conducting a public survey from the stall. The initiative was there to make both men and women aware of their rights. They had different sorts of activities at the stall to make people think about the issue of gender equality. For example, there was a board with comments, often heard by women from their surroundings, written on it.
Guests coming to the stalls wrote their names on the post-its and out these up on the board, next to the comments they have heard in their own lives. People who themselves have unknowingly said such things to women around them, became aware of their mistake.

There was another activity titled 'spot the flaw', where there were illustrations with different irregularities or wrongdoings on them and, visitors were being asked to identify them. There were many wrongdoings portrayed there but some were gender inequality related anomalies. Some people could spot these, for others it was a learning process. Interestingly, while many adults failed to spot those gender discriminative flaws, children found them easily.

There was another stall set up by The WOW Foundation in collaboration with British Council. They too had activities at their stall to promote gender equality. They conducted a two-day workshop on the third and fourth day of the fest.
Guests were asked to write any quotes, statements or just words that represent or promote gender equality on tote bags at the workshop. They then painted and designed them with colours and the bags were given to them as gifts.

A girl who was coordinating the workshop said it has been crazy, people were so interested to participate in the workshop that they struggled to manage the crowd. In fact, they ran out of supplies and had to close before their scheduled time.

Overall people responded well to these initiatives as these activities attracted great number of visitors to the stalls. It was great to see such creative and fun activities promoting gender equality at the Fest.

Dhaka Lit Fest proved to be more than just a festival of books, culture and the arts. The inclusion of gender awareness gave it that extra clout for playing a part in positive change.