EPISODE 10 Shammi Haque from Bangladesh
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It's August, 2015, somewhere in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka. One of the pictures taken by the police at the crime scene shows Shammi Haque in a small hallway standing over the body of her slain friend and colleague Niloy Neel. The young woman is covered with the blogger's blood. Her eyes are wide open in absolute horror. Four bloggers have already been hacked to death.
It is a decisive moment in the life of Shammi Haque. She understands that she herself could easily be the next victim of the Islamist killers. And so she boards a plane to safety in Germany - only five days after Nimoy Neels violent death.
Six years after this traumatic experience Shammi has settled in Northern Germany. She has mastered the language of her country of exile up to the point to be back in journalism. Her topics have not changed. She writes about Human Rights, women's rights, gender equality and the dangers of political Islam. "Back home I have experienced the harm this kind of extremism can do to a secular society. Here in Germany I enjoy this feeling of personal freedom every single day. And I don't want to see anything to happen to my second home country."
This doesn't mean that Shammi has given up on criticism. Asked for her opinion on the latest refugee crisis at the Polish-Belarusian border all reflexes of this soft spoken fire head spring into action: "There are people dying out there", she claims. "Back in Bangladesh we activists always pointed to Germany and the European Union as examples for freedom and the observance of human rights. I have only one word for what is happening these days - shame on you!"
Journalism, activism - and a new dream: Shammi Haque wants to encourage other journalists in German exile not to give up. Her message, based on her own experiences: Learning the language is the key. "Once you've passed this hurdle, all doors are open. Everything is possible here."
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