July movement turned into ‘money-making machine’, says Umama

The former spokesperson says all Anti-discrimination Movement decisions came from Hare Road

Former spokesperson of the Anti-discrimination Student Movement Umama Fatema has alleged that the July movement has been turned into a “money-making machine”.

Umama, who stepped down from the platform in late June, came live on Facebook on Sunday night and said she discovered the extent of financial and political manoeuvring only after taking over as spokesperson.

She said people were using the movement for tender lobbying, influence trading and even pushing for deputy commissioner appointments.

“It never occurred to me that something like this could be monetised,” Umama added. “But after becoming spokesperson, I saw how deep it had gone.”

She called it “unfortunate” and said she had no understanding of the dealings happening behind the scenes.

Umama resigned from the Anti-discrimination Movement on Jun 27, while still serving as the organisation’s spokesperson.

In the two-hour and 24-minute livestream, she revisited that decision and described her experience on the platform as a “tragic chapter of her life”.

“From the very next morning after the 5th of August, I noticed people were going around claiming to be coordinators, taking control of different places,” she said. “I was shocked. Just a day earlier, none of them even wanted to introduce themselves as coordinators.

“But from that day on, everyone was a coordinator, using the title for extortion and occupation.”

She described it as the formation of a “coordinator force” and questioned whether the movement platform had any purpose left at that point, suggesting that the priority had shifted to accommodating everyone rather than driving change.

Umama said she had believed the platform should be broadened and decentralised.

But voicing that opinion, she said, turned many against her.

She called the centralised structure a key reason behind the “long-term flaws” the platform is still facing.

During the July protest, she was also the member secretary of the Dhaka University chapter of the Student Federation.

Following the July Uprising, she resigned from the federation and was later appointed spokesperson of the Anti-discrimination Movement in October last year.

Reflecting on her experience, Umama said she often felt completely cut off from the platform’s actual processes.

“All decisions in the Anti-discrimination Student Movement were made at Hare Road [chief advisor’s residence]. Those were the ones implemented.”

Umama described going through “months of stress, confusion, and disorder”.

Nothing had structure, she said, and allegations of extortion, favouritism and internal shielding were common knowledge among those involved.

“Even just trying to ‘solve’ the Chattogram issue would’ve exposed many people. There are similar stories from other districts too. Once I started digging into them, I realised just how far these things had spread,” she added.