From dhaka to cincinnati: Tracing the trajectory of a transnational violence against women campaign

In September 2000, I received a phone call from Bina inviting me to an event honoring television journalist Connie Chung and her ABC 20/20 team for the Amnesty International Media Spotlight Award.1 Chung and her team were receiving this award for the report "Faces of Hope," which had aired nationally in the United States in November 1999 and featured the experiences of two young Bangladeshi women, Bina Akhter and Jharna Akhter. The event was hosted by ABC producers and would take place at the Yale Club in New York. A number of Bina's friends had been invited. "It would be my pleasure," I told Bina, "to see my old friend, and to witness such a momentous occasion honoring her story." Bina and Jharna (no relation to each other) would be flying in from Cincinnati, Ohio, where they lived with their American host family.