Coming out of us versus them syndrome

The office of external affairs of the Baha'i community of Bangladesh organised a panel Discussion of "Non-Adversarial Conflict Resolution" at the National Baha'i Center in Dhaka on 21 June 2025, reports a press release.

Khushi Kabir, social activist and coordinator of Nijera Kori speaking on gender based conflicts underscored the importance of raising consciousness from individual and societal levels to resolve gender based conflicts. She emphasised the need of every segment of the society to raise their voices from their positions.

Sazzad Siddiqui, chairman of the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at University of Dhaka focused on the issue of conflicts arising at workplaces. He said that we must come out of binary thinking which puts one person or one segment of society against the other. He said that conflicts are inevitable in society but that should not be made a barrier to smooth running of an institution or society in general.

Mozhgan Bahar, a writer and educationist talked about ways to resolve conflicts in a family, whether be it between husband and wife, parents and children or among siblings. She shared the Baha'i' way of resolving conflicts through  consultation, which follows the rule that as we are all striving to resolve a conflict there is no winner or loser in the process.

Mahmudul Haq of the office of external affairs of the Baha'i Community, the organisers of the event talking about the religious conflicts, echoed the views of other panelists that to build a harmonious and peaceful society we must overcome our deep rooted practice of seeing everything from us versus them angle. He showed historical facts that religious conflicts are not as intractable as they seem.

Around 100 persons mainly from different public and private universities and professionals participated in the program. The programme was followed by questions by the participants.