12 interesting things about Bangladesh that you surely don’t know

3 min readJun 8, 2020

Bangladesh- the name of the country

The word “Bangladesh” was first coined by Rabindranath Tagore. He used this word in his poem “Aji Bangladesh er Hridoy Hote…. ”

On 5th December 1969, Bangabandhu Sheikh Majibur Rahman declared, “The name of our Independent country will be Bangladesh” at a discussion.

By the way, the official name of Bangladesh is The People’s Republic of Bangladesh.

Meaning of Bangladesh flag

A country’s flag represents the spirit of its people. It conveys a meaning.

The green part of the flag tells us about the lushness of the green landscape of the country. And, the red circle represents the blood of the people who died for the independence of Bangladesh.

The first country to recognize Bangladesh

You may think it would be India since they helped us a lot in our liberation war. But, Bhutan was the first country that officially recognized independent Bangladesh on 6th December 1971.

India recognized Bangladesh on the same day, a few hours later.

Name of the Capital

In 1983, the spelling of the Bangladesh capital was changed from Dacca to Dhaka.

The last place to be liberated

We all know Bangladesh was liberated as a whole on 16th December 1971 with the surrender of Pakistan forces. Yet, there were some places where Pakistan forces were still putting up resistance. Mirpur was the last place liberated on 30th January 1972.

Diplomatic relation

Israel is the only country Bangladesh does not any have a diplomatic relationship with.

Bangladesh is one of the 16 countries that do not recognize Israel.

Tallest building

Currently, the 37-storey City Centre in Motijheel is the tallest building in Bangladesh.

Visa-free travel

Bangladesh is among the countries which have the least visa-free access. A Bangladeshi passport holder can travel without visas to 40 countries like Bahamas, Fiji, Jamaica among others.

And, only 17 countries allow Bangladeshi to get visa-on-arrival.

Weird laws of Bangladesh

Do you know under Bangladesh law a child above 15 years old can be jailed for cheating in a final examination? 😂

Let me tell you another one.

Suppose, you are stopped by police asking you, “Where are you going?”. If you failed to give a definite address, the police have the right to arrest you for allegedly being vagrant and keep you in jail until someone from your family can come and free you. 🤣

Cricket

Bangladesh won its first international cricket match on 24th May 1979. The opponent was Fiji.

Voting system

Bangladesh does its general election with the first-past-the-post system(FPTP). In this system, the winner is declared based on the total number of seats won, rather than taking the total aggregated votes got by each party.

In 1991 election, BNP got 30.81% votes and 140 seats. Whereas, Awami league with its allies was ahead of BNP with 37% votes. Unfortunately, Awami league couldn't win the election as per the FPTP system.😲

Prostitution

Prostitution is legal in Bangladesh. Did you know that?

If you find any info incorrect, you are requested to help me at hmohamedsajjad43@gmail.com. Apologies in advance.

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