Xulhaz Mannan (, ; 12 October 1976 – 25 April 2016) was an LGBTQ+ rights activist, USAID employee, and the founder of Bangladesh's first and only LGBTQ-themed magazine Roopbaan (). He was murdered, along with his friend and fellow-activist Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy, in a 2016 machete attack by Ansar al-Islam, the Bangladeshi branch of Al-Qaeda.
Early life and education Mannan was born on 12 October 1976. His mother, Sakhina Khatun, is a retired education ministry officer, and his father, who died several years ago, was actively involved in the 1971 Bangladeshi independence movement. His elder brother, Minhaj Mannan Emon, is the managing director of BLE Securities and shareholder-director of Dhaka Stock Exchange. His elder sister is a pharmacist, and lives in the United States. Former Bangladeshi Minister of Foreign Affairs Dipu Moni was his first cousin.
Mannan completed his SSC and HSC (1993) at Dhaka Residential Model College. He studied commerce at Dhaka City College, and international relations at Dhaka University. In 2003, he graduated with a post-graduate degree in peace and conflict studies.
Career Mannan worked at MGH Group, and later joined the Embassy of the United States, Dhaka in 2007 as a Protocol Specialist. He started working at the now-defunct US Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2015.
Activism In 2006, Mannan worked with Kasia Paprocki, associate professor in the Department of Geography and Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science, on a project supporting former garment workers in the development of workers' cooperatives. The garment workers were living in a slum on the east side of Dhaka. Paprocki remembers being "moved by the tenderness with which [Mannan] spoke to the women" during field research, noting their concerns and assessing what could be done to help them organize. "Whereas many fieldworkers of non-governmental organisations (often upper middle class urbanites), who work with poorer communities, such as farmers and slum-dwellers, sometimes cultivate an air of condescension with members of communities such as these, Xulhaz always came with a kind and open heart," Paprocki said.
According to writer and journalist Raad Rahman, Mannan "fostered a powerful vision about how there is nothing un-Bengali about being gay, nothing unnatural about advocating for gay rights". Rahman met Mannan through a college friend in 2012, after moving back to Bangladesh. At the time, Mannan was working to promote HIV testing and awareness in the country, and spoke to Rahman about "publishing what became Bangladesh's first and only LGBT magazine, Roopbaan."
Publication of Roopbaan In 2014, Mannan launched Roopbaan, the only magazine for the LGBT community in Bangladesh, with Tonoy and Rafida Bonya Ahmed, a gay Bangladeshi writer, visual artist and community organizer. The 56-page magazine is named after a Bangadeshi folklore character. "Many years ago in Nirashbu, which is the fictional kingdom in the story, there was a young girl named Roopbaan," Rafida explained in an interview with an American non-profit Freedom From Religion Foundation. "When she turned 12, she was forced to marry a 12-day-old prince...and leave the kingdom, so she was practically exiled to a jungle for 12 years. The reason behind that was to save the life of Roopbaan's infant husband." Rafida said that the reason people celebrated the 800-year old folklore was because it has evolved to "served as a kind of erotica or fantasy for heterosexual men." The magazine was an attempt to reclaim "his very heterosexist, flawed and problematic story" and retell it "from a queer perspective, shifting the focus from heterosexism to feminism." Mannan and Rafida "came up with [their own] twist" while working on Roopbaan in 2013. "What we wanted to tell them is that it's essentially a story of a woman and her 12 years of struggle to do pushback—to push back sexism, to push back unwanted sexual moves, to push back repression. Eventually, it's a story of the triumph of love over social stigma and oppression," Rafida recalled.
The grand launch of Roopbaan "was attended by more than 130 allies and community members" in Dhaka, and the invitation-only event was covered by "more than 300 local and international media outlets." Rafida told AFP that the quarterly magazine will not be available on street newsstands, "for fear of inflaming tensions and sparking a backlash against the gay community". Roopbaan received tremendous attention after the launch; numerous op-eds, blogs, research articles, and social media discussions followed with, and LGBTQ+ issues in Bangladesh became "a major debate in spaces like offices, colleges, universities, and homes." In a press conference, Bangladesh Tafsir Parishad, a Sufi political party, called the magazine a "master plan of the evil West," calling for an immediate ban on Roopbaan and the arrest of all editors involved. Islamist extremist pages on social media, including Basher Kella, Salauddiner Ghora and Hizbut-Tahrir, issued open threats in response to the launch event. Some of them posted pictures of the LGBTQ activists calling for their murder. Roopbaan editors were "advised to remain home for couple of weeks."
The original plan to publish Roopbaan every three months was foiled as printers refused to engage with the editors due to the constant threats of violence. The second edition was released in August 2014. Out of the 700 printed versions, close to half were sent outside of Dhaka to people with "poor access to the internet and social media". The team received orders from as far away as New Zealand and the United States.
A blogger who worked with Mannan on the magazine at the time said that they expected the publication of the second edition to "be lot less complicated than the first" but instead they encountered hurdles at every step. "The printing press, which printed the first edition of Roopbaan magazine, told us the next day that they were unable to print the magazine in the future," he wrote, "I was literally heartbroken. Not that Roopbaan wouldn't be printed, but out of fear of the police. Hearing my doorbell, I would cringe in fear." According to him, Mannan stood by his editors during these "trying times," advising them to not "make any trouble if police come looking" for them. "Don't deny anything. Go to the police station with them. Tell them my name. Tell them that Xulhaz is the kingpin of this magazine," Mannan said.
Rahman, writing for The Guardian, confirmed that within the first week of Roopbaan's inaugural publication, the printers received death threats "if collaborations continued." Mannan, "adamant that Roopbaan's goal was to be a literary venture within a largely marginalised community," refused all interview requests from international media and assured his team that "keeping a low profile would ensure the magazine's survival." Roopbaan became the centre of discussion at a government cabinet meeting. The magazine was placed in front of the prime minister who was "obviously not happy to see it." A few days later, Bangladeshi newspaper Bhorer Kagoz reported that government intelligence was looking for the editors.
Roopbaan Rainbow Rally In 2014, Roopbaan organised the Rainbow Rally on Pahela Baishakh, the first day of Bangla calendar, as a celebration of "diversity, friendship, and love," allowing the Bangladeshi LGBTQ+ community to walk in a public space for the first time "without hiding their sexual orientation and gender identity." Like many former British colonies, Bangladesh criminalizes homosexuality under Section 377 of its constitution. The rally, meant to be a "silent protest" against the lack of government recognition of homosexuality, became an annual tradition for the Bangladeshi LGBTQ+ community. Roopbaan continued to receive threats before and after the rally, as the event gained international attention after local Bangladeshi media compared it to a pride parade. The 2015 rally was much larger, with more allies joining, and received significant media coverage.
In 2016, the Bangladeshi government prohibited the use of masks and other face coverings, which greatly affected the planning of the rally that year as most attendees preferred to remain anonymous. In addition, the onslaught of threats continued. A Facebook page titled 'Voice of Bangladesh' created an event with a call to beat the attendees if the rally were to happen. On 13 April 2016, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police and Dhaka University jointly denied permission for the rally over permit issues and fear of religious backlash. When a few members of the LGBTQ+ community showed up for the rally anyway, they were arrested. Mannan and Tonoy stayed with them at the police station until after midnight when they were released on bail. The police outed the detainees to their parents, and released their names to the press. Tonoy received death threats two days later through a phone call. His family also confirmed that a group of unknown individuals visited Tonoy's residence and threatened him to "stay away from homosexual activities." Executive officials belonging to "a prominent sexual health service provider and a human rights defender" of Boys of Bangladesh (BoB), an informal group of closeted Bangladeshi gay men, were interrogated by the police about their connections with Roopbaan."
Other Roopbaan LGBTQ+ initiatives Roopbaan organized several other community-engagement and advocacy events between 2013 and 2015, including Pink Slip, SNS Transition Show and LGBT Film Festival. Pink Slip focused on raising awareness about sexual health and safety. Under the initiative, Roopbaan partnered with local hospitals to set up 2-day health camps, offering gay men a safe space to test for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). In December 2014, Roopbaan and BoB published a needs assessment report on the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ people in Bangladesh. The report, based on a community survey of 571 self-identified LGBTQ+ respondents, uncovered the different forms of harassment, including blackmail, physical assault, and sexual violence, people faced in their daily lives due to their sexual orientation. The report also found that members of the Bangladeshi LGBTQ+ community had no legal recourse to protect themselves, as a vast majority of the perpetrators of discrimination were friends and classmates. Roopbaan also conducted a Youth Leadership Program for LGBTQ+ people aged 16-24 years, comprising two-day workshops, seminars, and activities on issues affecting the lives of the target group.
In February 2015, Roopbaan announced the publication of a queer poetry book Roopongti at the Ekushey, the largest book fair in Bangladesh. The publisher of Roopongti was attacked in September 2015. In 2019, the magazine published Iti Roopbaan, a collection of letters from the Bangladeshi LGBTQ+ community.
Murder
In the days leading up to the murder, Mannan had been receiving threatening phone calls. At the same time, an Islamist Facebook page entitled "Voice of Bangladesh" had issued direct threats to gay rights activists. A woman's rights campaigner told The Telegraph that Mannan had expressed concerns about his safety and that of his fellow-activists. "At one point Xulhaz made a joke that one of these days you will find me with my throat cut," she said. After law enforcement officials detained attendees of the 2016 rainbow rally, Mannan and others, expecting further harassment, were "reluctant" to approach the police about the death threats.