‘Bidrupe Bidroho’ Cartoon Exhibition: A Satirical Look at the Fall of the Hasina Regime

📅 July 31 – August 5, 2025
📍 La Galerie, Alliance Française de Dhaka, Dhanmondi

Marking the first anniversary of the 36-day mass uprising of July 2024, a powerful blend of humor, art, and political resistance is on display in Dhaka. The popular satire platform Earki has launched “Bidrupe Bidroho”, a six-day cartoon exhibition portraying the downfall of the authoritarian Sheikh Hasina regime through biting wit and sharp visuals.

Purpose and Scope

Opening on July 31, the exhibition explores satire as a weapon of resistance. It features a diverse range of works — cartoons, memes, puppets, installations, and animations — all created during the July 2024 uprising and shared across newspapers, magazines, websites, and social media to support the movement.

Visitors can also engage with interactive games such as ludo, roulette, puzzles, and claw machines, designed to reflect key moments of the uprising while adding an element of playful participation.

Themes and Highlights

Many installations reinterpret Sheikh Hasina’s crisis-era speeches and dialogues, exposing their contradictions and absurdities in a comical way.
The exhibition also covers:

The internet shutdown during the protests
The story of “Haruner Bhater Hotel”
Viral social media content from the uprising
Graffiti-inspired slogans collected after the movement

One standout piece, the puzzle “Ei Amar Bangladesh”, brings together contemporary slogans sourced from post-uprising street graffiti, reflecting the people’s hopes and aspirations for a new era.

Curator’s Note

Exhibition curator ASM Rezaur Rahman highlights the enduring role of satire in challenging authority:

“Satire has always been a weapon of the marginalized — a way to laugh at power and expose its absurdities. This exhibition is a tribute to those who spoke truth to power with courage and wit, even in the darkest times.”