How the Bangladeshi diaspora supported the July movement from abroad

After the internet blackout on 18 July, Bangladeshi expatriates worried for their families back home organised demonstrations in their countries of residence. Photo: Tasfiq Moon

What began as a student movement demanding a restructuring of the government job quota system in July 2024 escalated into a countrywide mass movement for justice and democratic freedom within a couple of weeks, eventually leading to the overthrow of the Sheikh Hasina regime.

But it was not just the student community or residents in Bangladesh; the Bangladeshi diaspora, spread across the globe, also threw the full weight of their support, with hundreds of thousands of non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) expressing their solidarity on the streets and social media.

Migrant workers decided to stop sending money back home, which eventually caused a huge drop in Bangladesh's remittance earnings in July.

After the internet blackout on 18 July, Bangladeshi expatriates worried for their families back home organised demonstrations in their countries of residence.

However, organising a demonstration as a foreigner in another country is not as easy as it seems. Different countries have their own set of regulations regarding protests.

Fifty-seven migrant workers in Abu Dhabi, for instance, went to prison for their demonstrations. 

Similar to Bangladesh, international laws also require people to apply for permissions or at least acknowledge in advance that an assembly is going to occur.

'Step down Hasina' slogans in Darmstadt 

After university student Abu Sayeed was killed in Rangpur on 16 July, the Bangladeshi community in Darmstadt, Germany became increasingly vocal against the Hasina regime on social media. 

On 18 July, when Irfan Bhuiyan, a student of Bangladesh's United International University, was shot and thrown from an overbridge in Dhaka's Shonir Akhra area, his teacher, Khandokar Readul Islam, who is currently living in Darmstadt and had taught Irfan coding online, felt a surge of anger and decided to protest.

That day, Readul created a WhatsApp group for the Bangladeshi community in Darmstadt, announcing his intention to assemble and protest against the fascist regime and the violence against students in Bangladesh. Ten young people volunteered to help organise the demo.

In Germany, the Basic Law guarantees the right to public demonstrations, assemblies, or processions, but such events must be registered with the authorities 48 hours before they are publicly announced if they take place on publicly owned property.

"We needed to fill out a form at the city magistrate's office, detailing the reason for the protest, the tools we would use (such as flyers, banners, posters, and microphones), and an estimate of how many people would attend," Readul explained.

Initially, they applied for permission for 50 people but soon realised the turnout would be much larger. Ultimately, 120 people attended the protest. 

On the same day, the Bangladeshi diaspora in Frankfurt also held a gathering, said Akib Ibn Zahid, one of the volunteers who organised the Darmstadt protest.

The slogans included "Step down Hasina — end the dictatorship", "Stop killing students" and "Wanted rights, got bullets".

They also designed a leaflet for the German community explaining the reasons for the protest. Readul and his group initiated a signature collection campaign and a Twitter campaign for the European diaspora, tweeting regularly on the platform.

"We collected and submitted a memorandum with over 130 signatures to the German Foreign Affairs Office. They accepted our memorandum and later spoke with Bangladeshi politicians about the situation in the country," Readul said.

Safayat Mahmud Khan, a PhD student at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), organised a protest in Heidelberg. He noted the Bangladeshi response following the attack at Dhaka University in July.

"I saw that the movement had started in the big cities, so I felt that we should also do something," Mahmud said.

"The Bangladeshi community in Heidelberg is very small, maybe not even 40 people in total. Initially, only two or three of us put out a post in our community group inviting anyone interested to join. I didn't plan to seek permission; I thought we'd protest quietly and plan something larger later. It wasn't our intention to force anyone," he added.

Mahmud then bought posters, colours, and markers and went to a senior's house to prepare everything.

"At first, I thought there wouldn't be many people, as not everyone had confirmed their attendance. I expected no more than eight to 10 people. In the end, about 18-20 people showed up. Our aim was to inspire others and spread the protest from small towns to larger cities," he said.

On 20 July, protests were held in Stuttgart, Frankfurt, and Darmstadt. Mahmud, along with a few others, later joined the Darmstadt event.

In Australia, Melbourne led the way

Asif Qurish owner of a career education consultation agency in Melbourne, assisting Bangladeshi students who come to Australia for their studies. He manages seven social media pages where he addresses students' queries about studying, finding jobs, and securing housing. However, this July, for the first time, the pages called on their members to gather in front of the Melbourne State Library for a protest.

"After the murder of Abu Sayeed, we knew we had to do something. On 16 July, I went to the Melbourne West Police Station to seek permission. The police sergeant granted us permission for the assembly, though the next day, they sent a couple of officers to the library premises," Asif said.

For the protest, Asif had 10 volunteers who helped prepare banners and posters. The following day, nearly 50 Bangladeshi residents living in Melbourne gathered in front of the State Library.

The slogans they used included "Pray for Bangladeshi students". 

"After that day, we received news from all over Australia and eventually from around the world that Bangladeshi students and expatriates were protesting in Canada, the US, Germany, Italy, England, and more," Asif added.

In the days leading up to the fall of Sheikh Hasina, Asif and his volunteer group organised seven more assemblies in Melbourne.

More than 700 people came, and the two of us were the only organisers

On the night of 17 July, Tasfiq Moon, a Dallas-based IT engineer, planned a protest to support Bangladeshi students. Dallas is a hub for a large number of Bangladeshi students, so he believed it would be the students who would participate in the protest.

Tasfiq reached out to several Bangladeshi residents within Dallas to organise a protest, but some refused to join or avoided the protest against the fascist government in Bangladesh.

"I could understand their fear; many of them had families and businesses back home. So, I decided to talk to someone courageous who could co-organise this, and that's when I approached Zakaria Sakib," Tasfiq said.

Zakaria Sakib is a deputy at the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office in Texas, and together they created an event on social media for a protest on 20 July in Irving, Texas. They co-hosted the event, with Tasfiq handling the public engagement and Zakaria managing the law and order aspect.

"Since Zakaria works for the Sheriff's department, it became easier for us to get the city of Irving's consent to organise the event," Tasfiq said.

Initially, they estimated around 400 people would join the assembly. With this estimate in mind, Tasfiq created a digital flyer and shared it on their social media platforms. "We requested our friends and families to share the flyer in their Facebook posts and stories."

However, there were a couple of challenges. 

"First of all, we wanted to keep the event peaceful and apolitical. We publicly announced our policies on the event's social media page, so that nobody could misuse the public event to serve their political agendas," Tasfiq said.

Apart from this, the next big challenge was the infamous Texas summer temperature. Managing around 400 people would be an arduous task for just two of them. Event organisers posted a weather advisory on the event page and requested the interested attendees to take the necessary safety measures and also asked them to have enough fluids.

On 20 July, the organisers were in awe when more than 700 people showed up at the protest. 

"A seasoned photographer of our community took photographs of the event. But I decided not to post any of the photos on our social media pages. The reason behind this was a threatening message from the Bangladeshi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stating that those who organised and joined such protests might get denied passport issuances or renewals," he further explained.

On the day of the protest, they played the national anthem of Bangladesh, performed the funeral-in-absentia for the martyrs in Bangladesh, held a rally, and stood beside the highway with placards and posters to create awareness among the American community about what was happening in Bangladesh.

"I saw people cry that day — people who hadn't visited their country in the past decade. I think this is what kept us united. Maybe we weren't at home when this happened, but we haven't forgotten our land and the people," Tasfiq concluded.