Every year, Bangladeshi women – burdened by economic precarity, domestic violence, climate loss, a failing education, and fractured dreams — leave home for the Gulf in search of a better life. Transfigured into invisible labor, many disappear into the shadows of modern slavery, shielded in colonial-rooted legal systems. Betrayed by brokers, states, and patriarchal orders, some return carrying violence, loss, and statelessness. In this context, Unhealed Beneath Grieving Skies is a dialogic, multi-layered visual inquiry, tracing invisible wounds, eroded identities, and fractured belonging, while confronting the enduring cruelties of global neoliberal capitalism.
A passport-sized photograph of Suruja Akhter, taken before she left for Oman to work as a housemaid. She was later reported dead by suicide, and her body was returned to Bangladesh after her family paid 70,000 BDT for repatriation. The photograph was shared by her younger sister, Sultana, who is now navigating the bureaucratic process to secure legal financial support from the government for Suruja’s 4-year-old daughter. In Bangladesh, on 4 April 2025.
Hajera (35) traveled to Saudi Arabia in February 2024 to support her family, as her husband’s income as a day laborer was not enough. While working as a domestic worker, she endured severe physical abuse. One day, she overheard her employer plotting to kill her and secretly recorded the conversation. She fled to a police station and presented the recording as evidence. The Saudi police sent her back to Bangladesh, but her phone, containing the recording, was never returned. In Bangladesh, on 19 June 2025.
