The Kilogram and the Prayer: Suffering, Meaning, and Care Among Survivors of the July 2024 Movement in Bangladesh
Author
Hasan, Samam
Term
4. semester
Education
Publication year
2026
Submitted on
2026-05-28
Pages
63
Abstract
This thesis explores how five men who survived the July 2024 political movement in Bangladesh understand their suffering after violence, and how their views line up with—or go beyond—the mental-health and psychosocial frameworks available to them. It is based on in-depth interviews carried out with the Human Rights Development Centre (HRDC) and DIGNITY – Danish Institute Against Torture. The material was analysed using constructivist grounded theory, an approach that builds concepts from participants’ accounts rather than testing preset ideas. From the interviews, the study identifies eight themes and advances two main ideas. First, theological distress constitution describes cases where religion is not just a language for talking about pain, but the lens that defines what counts as distress, how severe it is, and its moral meaning. Second, functional-material distress describes cases where suffering is understood through concrete losses in daily ability—what a person can no longer do—rather than through feelings. These two ways of understanding are not separate: they intersect, most clearly in one participant’s account of how violence disrupted the practice of prayer through which he maintains his relationship with God. The thesis offers these claims as an analytical proposal grounded in five specific accounts—one of which carries particular weight—and calls for further empirical research in similar post-violence contexts.
Specialet undersøger, hvordan fem mænd, der overlevede den politiske bevægelse i Bangladesh i juli 2024, forstår deres lidelse efter vold, og hvordan deres forståelser passer med—eller går ud over—de mentale sundheds- og psykosociale rammer, de har adgang til. Studiet bygger på dybdegående interviews gennemført i samarbejde med Human Rights Development Centre (HRDC) og DIGNITY – Dansk Institut Mod Tortur. Materialet er analyseret med konstruktivistisk grounded theory, en tilgang hvor begreber udvikles ud fra deltagernes beretninger frem for at teste faste hypoteser. På tværs af interviewsene identificeres otte temaer og to hovedpointer. For det første beskriver teologisk formning af lidelse (theological distress constitution), at religion ikke blot er et sprog for at tale om smerte, men den linse, der definerer, måler og giver moralsk betydning til lidelsen. For det andet beskriver funktionel-materiel lidelse (functional-material distress), at lidelse forstås gennem konkrete tab af handleevne i hverdagen—hvad man ikke længere kan—snarere end gennem følelser. Disse to forståelsesformer er ikke adskilte, men fletter sig sammen; tydeligst i en deltagers beretning om, hvordan volden forstyrrede den bønnepraksis, der bærer hans forhold til Gud. Specialets bidrag fremlægges som et analytisk forslag forankret i fem specifikke beretninger—hvor én spiller en særlig stor rolle—og som en opfordring til yderligere empiriske undersøgelser i lignende kontekster præget af eftervirkninger af vold.
[This apstract has been rewritten with the help of AI based on the project's original abstract]
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