I am grateful to Hasina Momtaz for inviting me to the Guildhall this afternoon to celebrate Victory Day for Bangladesh and in a cheeky way, I managed to promote my book -'Covid Crisis, the BritBangla Response'. I would especially like to thank Munsur Ali CC , Sheikh Aliur Rahman OBE , Snigdha K S Misty and others.

On 4th July 6-8pm at Rich Mix, 50 people from all walks of life from the East End and beyond to purchased the ' Covid Crisis: The Brit-Bangla Response ' book and viewed the  Untold Covid  Stories exhibition (preview) which showed extracts of the book to remember the struggles of the Bengali community during the pandemic and their response. The exhibition was opened at 6 PM and were guided by  Saif Aslam and Doug Haywood (exhibition curators), Barney Snow (script editor), Miranda Snow (visual book editor), Chuks Ikediashi (Author's friend) and Ripon Ray (author).  At 7pm, Ripon Ray, spoke about the historical importance of such a book launch to capture the stories during the pandemic from the perspective of the Bengali community and how the campaign organised by BritBanglaCovid had become one of the major platforms for many minority communities predominantly from East London. Kawsar Zaman - campaigner for TaketheVaccine - highlighted the book's significance and the e...

It was such a joy to hear from a diverse range of women's experience of British Bangladeshi origin as part of the International Women's History Month in Britain. Ripon Ray, founder of BritBanglaCovid would especially like to thank her Honour Judge Khatun Sapnara for stewarding the public meeting in such a delicate manner as Julie Begum, Jusna Begum, Ummul Chowdhury, Rukeya Miah, Rezna Khatun, Hasina Momtaz and Meghna Uddin and Tanzila Zaman shared their sensitive life experiences to the wider communities in Britain and beyond. It was no doubt a privilege and an honour to have listened to such experiences as BritBanglaCovid comes to the end of its campaign against Covid-19 in order to support the Bangladeshi community in Britain from the pandemic. I hope British Bangladeshi women feel proud of what they have achieved so far in Britain in order for the future generation of Bangladeshi women to gain confidence recognising the solidarity in their struggles.

Register here:  link This event is brought to you by BritBanglaCovid and supported by Oxford University and Swadhinata Trust to get British Bangladeshi women talk about issues that matter to them. There are misconceptions about Bangladeshi women linked with force marriages, oppressed, and being submissive to men among so many different stereo types. Also, how did the pandemic impact Bangladeshi women? Let's find out about it as part of the Women's History Month from the point of view of British Bangladeshi women (in English). As part of this meeting on 13 March 2022 at 3pm on Zoom, Bangladeshi women practitioners, writers and and community leaders are to share their experience as never done before. This event is co-hosted by Her Honour Judge Khatun Sapnara and Ripon Ray. Thank you for listening to the voices of British Bangladeshi women during the pandemic! The event is open to everyone regardless of your race, and gender Register here:  link

In memory of her dead son, Hasina Momtaz  spreads the message of  hope and paradise  after life through jewellery design to connect with Muslim community during pandemic. Early life in London Hasina came to the UK in the mid 1970s. She settled in Croydon, south London, from Bangladesh. She could not speak a word of English and was being bullied at school. ‘I remember nobody wanted to be my friend and the teacher assigned somebody to be my friend to look after me and make sure I was okay.’ Although she made south London her home, there was something unsettling for Hasina as a teenanger. ‘So   from the age of that 16, 17, I almost felt like I was on borrowed time because the school that I was at there were three or four Bangladeshi girls who all got taken out of school at the age of 16 and ...actually shipped back home… and married off there against their will.’ She confessed that she also felt the pressure from her father to get married. ‘I was determined th...