Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
and supplies various services to members of the community. he defines himself
as right-wing, a member of the bangladesh Nationalist party.
The romantic and nationalist language used by asraf, who is aware of his po-
litical and cultural role, is symptomatic of the diaspora's mission within a lively
political dynamic that links these migrants to their country of origin in more
than one way. as leader of a new diasporic generation, asraf moves within a
global framework through different worlds and different centers. his language,
inspired by a nationalist mission that is infused with the moral values of dignity
and honor, uses romantic concepts that are strongly essentialist:
in torpignattara there is a large bangladeshi community. That means that we
need true professionals who can help us to fight for our rights. i devote myself
to the bangladeshi community; the community needs management, it needs
professionals who will one day be capable of acting. .  .  . This community of
ours is big. They need guidelines and leadership. and since we are not italians,
we must represent our country here. we must have an honorable identity. if a
bengali commits a robbery or is a criminal, people tar us with the delinquency
brush and say that bengalis are a bad lot. we in Rome can say proudly that the
bangladeshi community is the only one that co-exists very harmoniously and
acts as one body (28 april 2010).
as for the torpignattara district, asraf outlines the positive contribution
made by the bangladeshi presence and clearly depicts the role of “control” of the
territory operated by various different “leaders”:
we are well known as a community and have a good relationship with every-
one, because thanks to our social engagement the bangladeshi community
does not commit much crime. This part of the community in this neighbor-
hood is fairly peaceful and lives respectably. This zone is inhabited by our
community; we who live in this district feel as if we were more in bangladesh
than in italy. Do you know that we in this district named the area banglatown
three years ago? The name existed before then, but only among ourselves. Now
our kids, our own kids, have got a football team together in this district, called
banglatown friends. since we feel that we are living in bangladesh, we want to
promote our own culture, the culture of our society. we have women, families,
children. i want my daughter and my wife to go about the district in peace
without being hassled. . . . in this area we do not have full control of society.
we have had to work to obtain it. in the past this area seemed to be out of
control. i represent an association. we settled here in 2007. torpignattara at
that time seemed to have no guardian, nobody who was committed to watch
and to intervene, things were very different then. but in the recent years of our
presence we have managed to overcome obstacles of this kind. in recent years
i have seen that the district has been pacified.
This interesting process of creating the leadership of the bangladeshi dias-
pora takes place within the dynamics of bangladeshi national politics, in that
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