In honor of Victory Day, the students of AUW held a parade in the neighborhood around campus. Armed with signs, banners, and a great deal of red and green clothes and face paint, they marched out the driveway onto M.M. Ali Road and then made their away around the entire extended block (actually a triangle), singing and chanting the entire way. Unsurprisingly, the large group of vibrant vocal young women garnered a great deal of interest from the local residents, most of which stopped whatever they were doing as the procession passed, and some of which even got up and started to follow along the sides (taking as many camera phone pictures and videos as they possibly could along the way).
Photo taken in Chittagong, Bangladesh on December 16, 2009.
After the students (and several participating staff and teachers) returned to campus, they continued to celebrate in the AUW driveway for quite a while. They sang songs, recited poetry, and took many pictures to remember the joyous event. The excess of color, noise, and positive energy flowing out of the huge group was a great symbol of the massive potential contained in such a passionate female student body that the university is working to help develop and enable to flourish. I promise I am not getting paid to write that questionably run-on sentence! It is just undeniably inspiring to see the power of AUW students in motion, especially in mass.
Photos taken in Chittagong, Bangladesh on December 16, 2009.
Tags: auw, bangladesh, celebration, chittagong, color, holiday, locals, parade, photos, photos by dan, streets, students, women
awesome photos, dan. Are you sure AUW isn’t paying you to write this stuff, and take these awesome photos?
What I really love is that there are students in these photos from so many countries- Definitely Bangladesh, but also Sri Lanka, Nepal, India, Afghanistan, and even Pakistan (which the students were actually celebrating victory over). Photo 16 is of a Pakistani student, and she has the flag of Bangladesh painted on one cheek, and the flag of Pakistan on the other. I think that’s something that makes AUW unique and really great- bringing together women from so many different countries to find commonality in a continuing desire to have an ongoing dialog about right and wrong, and justice and injustice.
Nice photos!
Thanks for posting these Dan. I completely missed this event in 2009, but now I will know not to miss it in 2010!
Ditto to Catie’s comments above – it struck me immediately how many non-Bangladeshi faces were in the pics but how spirited those students seemed regardless. Interaction brings understanding and understanding can only help to promote the value of diversity on a deeper level.