July 29, 2025, 9:48 am

Umama Fatema on Facebook Live: July’s been made a ‘money-making machine

  • Update Time : Monday, July 28, 2025
Photo: Collected


Staff Correspondent:



Former spokesperson of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, Umama Fatema, has described her involvement with the platform as a “tragic” episode in her life.

Anti-Discrimination Student Movement is the platform that led the students and people in the July-August mass uprising last year.

Speaking in a live broadcast on her verified Facebook account on Sunday night, she talked for two hours and 24 minutes, where she described in detail her journey from joining the platform to leaving it and revealed a series of incidents and insights.

“July was a massive experience for me. But once I became the spokesperson of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, I discovered that people were using it for all sorts of things. It had never occurred to me that one could make money from this. Why on earth would we turn it into a money-making machine? But unfortunately, that is what happened, almost regularly,” Umama said.

She mentioned that the misuse of the title “coordinator” began almost immediately after the uprising.

“From the very next morning after 5 August, I started hearing that people were going around places claiming to be coordinators and grabbing control of things! I was shocked. Just the day before not many of them even wanted to identify themselves as coordinators, and the next day there’s extortion and land grabbing in the name of being coordinators (of the July movement). I thought, this a platform of coordinators being formed like that of the ‘Rakhi Bahini’ (the notorious paramilitary force). At that time, I began to think: what’s the need for this platform anymore? Now we should think about accommodating everyone. I thought this platform should be broadened and decentralised. I still don’t think that was a wrong idea. We have been suffering from many shortcomings as the platform remained at that time. But I’ve made many enemies by saying that.”

Joining the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement

Umama was the General Secretary of the Dhaka University unit of the Students Federation during the July uprising. After the uprising, as she resigned from the organisation, many involved in the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement began to contact her. In October last year, she was appointed the spokesperson for the platform.

Reflecting on her time in the movement, she said: “All decisions of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement used to be taken at Hare Road (residences of advisers) and were simply implemented. I felt completely cut off from the process. Everything seemed chaotic; I went through months of intense stress. Nothing seemed to me in order. The allegations of extortion, nepotism, and providing shelter to the accused—I knew all of those incidents so well. Just resolving the issue in Chattogram alone would have exposed many people. And there were stories from other districts too. We saw those incidents had reached far and wide.”

She also revealed that the programme regarding the July Charter on 31 December had been suddenly announced and then cancelled, which deeply frustrated her.

“Sometime between 10-15 January, I heard they were moving towards launching a political party. I wasn’t interested in any political party. By the end of January, I decided to leave the platform. In the second week of February, some people came to me and said, ‘Apu, let’s try to rebuild the platform together’. Later, I was accused of trying to take over the platform… But I’ve always seen it as a responsibility. It didn’t feel valuable to me, though others considered it as such, since it was their ticket to run around the offices of DCs and SPs,” she stated.

Umama Fatema further said, “Anyone with a shred of self-respect cannot survive in that platform. Being part of it was a tragic event in my life. To see those who marched in July and stood at the frontline of the movement now engaging in some cheap activities, it’s hard to bear… I feel like I wasted a year of my life. Had I worked alone, I could have achieved something more meaningful. The psychological toll on us was immense as we had dreams to do something for the country. Maybe others didn’t have that dream, maybe their dream was extortion. But you called me and used me like a tissue paper. I’m not a tissue paper at all.”

‘Had no idea before becoming the spokesperson’

In the final portion of her Facebook live, Umama Fatema said, “The July-August period was a lived experience. It could be said that that was a trauma for all of us. The way people fought on the streets is simply unbelievable. Never did it cross my mind that this could be used to make money. But after becoming the spokesperson, I saw people were now doing everything, from tender manipulation, lobbying for appointments, to even DC postings; people were doing all those as a routine. But I had no idea beforehand.”

“Some people claim I earned millions. All I can say is, I have a pretty good life. I come from a well-off family. I’ve never had to struggle that badly. I don’t need this identity for scholarships abroad. By the grace of Allah, I’ve got a good CGPA, I studied in a good subject. My family supports me and sees me as a human being, not a money-making machine. They just want me to do good for the country,” she concluded.

 

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