Liza, 18

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By Taslima Akhter

March 15,2014

Translation Akram Hossain

She went to work wearing a red dress maroon salwar on 24 April, 2013. Like any other days she started walking briskly from Savar Nama bazaar and reached the factory by 8:00am. Fearing a disaster, her mother Jahanara had told her not to go to work. “They’ll pay for the overtimes today and close the factory by one-o'clock in the afternoon,” she reassured the worried mother. Jahanara spent the last one year looking for her daughter. "I would have found some sort of solace if I knew where she was laid to rest," she said.

Liza's name was enlisted in the list of workers who went missing after the disaster. Later in its first report on DNA sampling, the National Forensic DNA Profiling Laboratory of Dhaka Medical College said Liza was buried in grave no DMC 47 in Jurain graveyard in Dhaka where 291 unidentified bodies found in the rubble of Rana Plaza were buried. Delowar has nothing beyond a very tiny piece of land in the village. That too, is to be divided among his other siblings. When Baby worked at the factory, she would often talk to Delowar about saving up and buying a piece of land in the village to lessen the family’s hardship. The house in the village was in ruins, and needed repairs.

Dead: Liza (18)
New Wave Styls ltd.
7th floor, Sewing operator, Mehedy’s line
Mother: Mosammat Jahanara Begum
Father: Abdus Salam
Village – Aram Kathi; Post office and Thana – Shawrupkathi;
District – Pirujpur
Grave no: DMC -47 (but there is no grave)
March 15, 2014



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