Sanjana Khan and Ayesha Akhtar grew up just a block apart in Norwood. Both their families hail from the city of Sylhet in eastern Bangladesh on the Surma River. Yet, it took a Bronx Narratives event last August at the Bronx Museum of the Arts for the two to finally meet. A month later, they founded LAAL, a non-profit group supporting Bengali women in Norwood live healthy, engaged, joyful lives. 

The two women spent June 23 “womanning” the group’s table stand at the “Bangla Bazzar Street Fair”, which took place at Decatur Avenue and East 204th Street in Norwood. Together, with a few other volunteers, they were kept busy all day fielding questions and handing out questionnaires to local Bengali women. 

“It’s our needs assessment because we’re planning our fall and spring programming and so, we really want to get to know what the women want,” said Akhtar, 29. Meanwhile, Khan, 28, senses the value in these surveys based on the responses she’s received. “One of my favorite questions for the women who have been here for 20-plus years is, if this [LAAL] had been happening 20 years ago, would this have helped them, and every single woman was like, I wish this existed 20 years ago,” she said.

LAAL means “red” in Bangla, and the name and color hold great significance to women in the Bengali culture. It is the mark of menstruation, the “alta” (henna-like tattoo) Bengali women use to adorn themselves, and the red sun that is in the center of the Bangladeshi flag. Red saris are worn by Bengali women on their wedding day, Bengali women are famous for wearing a red bindi (a jewel adorning the forehead) and so, the name serves as a reminder of the strength and resilience of Bengali women. 

However, in reference to the formal presentations and awards portion of the Bengla Street fair, Khan remarked on the day, “There’s no women here. Though there were women in the audience, she added, “There’s no representation – as always.” 

Over the years, the Bengali population has increased in Norwood, carving a space for themselves that’s somewhat insular but part of the neighborhood’s transformative cultural fabric. The latest U.S. Census estimates show the number of foreign-born Bangladeshis within Community District 7, which includes Bedford Park, Norwood, Fordham, Kingsbridge Heights, and University Heights, is 2,445, representing 4.2 percent of the district’s population. “This community is growing,” said Khan. “We’re huge!”  

Indeed, the overall Bangladeshi population of New York City grew 42 percent in just three years from 34,237 in 2008 to 48,677 in 2011, according to the Asian American Federation (AAF), a policy think tank group. About 20 percent of that population resides in the Bronx. 

Barriers to Integration
AAF places Bangladeshis among the poorest of the city’s Asian ethnic groups, with one in three Bangladeshis living below the poverty line. Khan explained that Bangladeshis are now arriving from more rural areas of the country where the role of women is more traditional, largely dependent on men.

According to LAAL, some of the issues faced by Bengali women in the U.S. include inadequate command of the English language, despite some  having lived in stateside for over 20 years, fear of traveling beyond the confines of their local community, partly due to a lack of understanding of the city’s bus and subway systems, accessing public information, and isolation. Akhtar added that the way public information is usually obtained in the Bengali community is through word-of-mouth, rather than from city agency websites. 

According to Khan, these factors create additional challenges for a community already dealing with the effects of Islamophobia, and one which, Khan said, holds a certain level of distrust towards police. According to 2014 U.S. State Department estimates, 89.9 percent of the population of Bangladesh are Muslim. 

All of these circumstances amplified the need for bottom-up support services, tailored specifically to Bengali women, to help them integrate into American society. It is here that Khan and Akhtar play a role through their work with LAAL, delicately straddling a sensitive line between Bengali and American culture. 

“We both went away for college, which is very rare,” said Akhtar. Referring to their respective alma maters, she said, “They are both very liberal arts schools, very away, and very removed from here.”

Yet, they say family roots brought them back home to Norwood. “We left but came back here in the Bronx, doing it for our communities. So yeah, we’re here,” said Khan. “We know exactly what we’re going into. We grew up in it.” Indeed, both women reference the experience of seeing their mothers struggle with similar barriers to integration as motivating factors for starting the non-profit. 

Raising Funds
LAAL was among the recipients of the 2019 Neighborhood Grant awarded by the Citizens Committee for New York City whose mission is to help New Yorkers, especially those in low-income areas, come together and improve the quality of life in their neighborhoods.

“We are a very small team and we’re all pro-bono right now,” said Akhtar. “We want to raise $25,000 [for a special number of years] for our operational costs to fund our programs. It’s an online campaign because that’s the cheapest way to do it, so it’s on GoFundMe.”

The women said their work has not been without its obstacles, financial resources being just one, but they are encouraged by the support they received from Councilman Andrew Cohen’s office and from State Sen. Jamaal Bailey. 

And while a needs assessment is among the first order of business for the group, there are plans for a transportation class.

“We’re going to do a transportation class starting in the spring,” Khan said. The classes will start with a group of volunteers and five Bengali women who will be taught how to use the city’s buses and subways to get to and from Jackson Heights and other important parts of the Bronx like Fordham. Khan said they will then mix up the group and get the women to go in pairs. She added that familiarity with public transportation is a small but empowering activity that the women can then do by themselves.

“My mother has been here for 30-plus years and she still has a fear,” said Khan. “She has her driver’s license but a fear of getting lost. It’s so deeply embedded in her.” Khan puts this fear down to cultural oppression and wants to break that cycle.

Difficulty getting around has also certainly impeded Bengali women’s ability to practice English and further their isolation, but Khan emphasized that English is also not a language commonly practiced in Bangladesh. “Then, on top of that, the women aren’t allowed to go out, ‘cause at home they’re not allowed,” she said. “So, when they come here, it doesn’t change.”

To address this, LAAL will provide English classes, covering beginner, intermediate and advanced levels, as well as conversational classes. In addition, exercise and health classes will be held on Saturdays, starting in the fall.  

“It’s an exercise class which is really about wellness, and leading a healthy lifestyle,” said Khan.  She hopes it will also help address high cholesterol levels and diabetes, which are both prominent in the community. The aim is to talk about eating habits and look at small improvements and changes that can be made to the community’s diet. 

Khan’s and Akhtar’s work has been influenced by other non-profits covering the South Asian community. LAAL has partnered with Malikah, a non-profit which provides self-defense classes for Muslim women, after its founder, Rana Abdelhamid, was attacked and her hijab pulled in her Queens neighborhood in 2010. 

They also see the value of Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM), in terms of the group’s community organizing capabilities. Desi is a term used by Bengalis who are abroad to identify fellow Bengalis. “That’s what we really want to get into,” said Khan. Referring to the 2020 presidential election, she asks, “Can we get this community to mobilize to vote?” 

The Norwood News asked if a Bengali woman were to run for public office, would it, perhaps, change traditional perceptions of women in the community. “Oh, we’re definitely going to run for office,” Khan said, referring to women in her community. “This has to change. I think AOC has been a huge influence,” she added, referring to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. “And really, being part of LAAL, we should be at the table, not just a few men who have money. We want to put the women in this community at the table.” 

“Insiders but Outsiders”
Khan talked about Ocasio-Cortez’s race against Joe Crowley, a moderate Democrat, who was supported by the Bangladeshi community in Parkchester, and appeared to compare it with the traditional support lent to incumbents in the Democratic Party in Norwood by Bangladeshi community leaders. “This needs to change,” she said. “LGBTQ matters need to be talked about. There is so much happening that is not talked about.” 

She added, “We’re all minorities. I mean, the white right-wing are so organized. We need to organize on our side in order to do some changes here.”  

Currently, though gender imbalance informs much of LAAL’s work, Khan and Akhtar’s dream is to eventually integrate men, especially young men from the Bengali community, into the mix, transforming the nonprofit into a holistic family-centered organization. 

Another challenge is language and subculture within the community. Though both Akhtar and Khan speak the Sylheti dialect, this is different from Shudo Bangla, another spoken dialect in the community, and this has sometimes hampered communication. They said there are also specific religious considerations that have to be understood. 

“The women are much more conservative, so you know, little things that are not little, but you have to be inside the community to know,” said Khan. “So, we’re like insiders but outsiders.”

Are they confident they will overcome these barriers? “Although we’re doing this thing that’s very challenging, we are very Bengali, and we take care of our families,” said Akhtar. “We’re very rooted in that tradition, so I don’t think we’ll have as much of a problem as a true outsider would.” 

 Editor’s Note: Further information on LAAL can be found at https://www.laalnyc.org/