Kalpona Akter Circle Ambassador in Vogue

EXCERPT FROM A PIECE IN vogue ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2022

Long before the Rana Plaza factory collapse in 2013, which shone a much-needed light on exploitative labour conditions, kalpona Akter had started her fight to change them. Since 2000 she has dedicated herself to reform; demanding respect for garment workers, engaging stakeholders and carrying out crucial investigations and analysis. In 2016 she was awarded the Human Rights Watch’s Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism. Her work is vital but still dangerous – she’s often targeted by factory owners and is still seeking justice for her colleague, labour organiser Aminul Islam, who was abducted, tortured and killed in April 2012.

“It began when I was 15,” she explains. “A manager came to us and said that he would be paying us less for overtime, and I just said no. A few of us refused to work after 5pm and, after a few days of back and forth, they agreed to pay us the full amount on the condition that it would be less in coming months. I wasn’t happy with it.” She attended a workshop from what’s now known as the South American Centre for International Solidarity who informed her that she had rights. “I learned something beautiful, that I had the right to organise. These people were depriving us of our rights. The following morning when I went to the factory, I could feel the butterflies in my stomach. I wanted to share what I’d found with everyone there.”

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