Meet Bangladesh's First Lesbian Cartoon Character
http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/09/09/meet-bangladeshs-first-lesbian-cartoon-character?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2015-09-09
With her glasses and curly hair, Dhee could easily be the charming and brainy girl next door. The lesbian cartoon heroine, whose name means wisdom in Bangla, is a boundary-busting character created by a gay rights organization in Bangladesh, where homosexuality is a crime and free speech can be a dangerous gamble.
Through her stories, Dhee talks about gender, sexuality, puberty, love, relationships, family, and society, Shakhawat Hossain, once of Dhee's creators, told TakePart. It was important for us to show the intersectionality of all these issues.
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The LGBT organization Boys of Bangladesh created Dhee's character as part of a broader campaign called Project Dhee, which aims to support the LGBT rights movement in the predominantly Muslim country. Dhee is Bangladesh's first lesbian comic character, according to the Dhaka Tribune. Dhees story is told in 10 flash cards, which the creators plan to distribute as advocacy materials during educational workshops. The comic was launched at the British Council in Dhaka last week and will be distributed by activists and artists to participants at 15 gay rights seminars to be held throughout the country.
In Bangladesh, homosexuality is punishable by a colonial-era British antisodomy law with fines, hard labor, or life in prison. About half of 571 self-identified gay Bangladeshis report living in constant fear of their sexual orientation being discovered, a survey conducted by Boys of Bangladesh found last year. Many of the people surveyed expressed concern that their sexual orientation was at odds with their religious identity.