Welcome,
We’re entering the third month of building the Saa Nastsa community. I love hearing from you about the content and what you enjoy reading in this newsletter. Many of you have reached out to tell me about your favorite stories. I am honored to be a part of this community, as it shifts, and expands. I hope you stay tuned for more content and coverage about Bangladeshi food and culture.
This month is Women’s History Month. We’ll be bringing you stories of women to celebrate from yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Also, check out special coverage of the Embassy of Bangladesh visiting Michigan for Mobile Consular Services in Hamtramck.
Happy #WomensHistoryMonth.
With gratitude,
Nargis Hakim Rahman
Embassy of Bangladesh Brings Essential Consular Services To The Community
by Nargis Hakim Rahman
People are lined up outside of Kabob House in Hamtramck on Saturday with passports in hand, masks covering their faces. They are waiting to see Embassy of Bangladesh officials inside the restaurant. The people are brought in — a few at a time — to get their paperwork checked at the helpdesk. Some will need assistance to fill out forms in English. Then they will be called one by one to meet with a consular officer to get their passport renewals, visas and other travel documents.
The Embassy typically visits once a year but didn’t last year due to the pandemic. But as the Bangladeshi community in Michigan grows, so does the need for services.
Officials are bringing these essential services to the people, says Rumman Ahmed Sagoto, who has been volunteering at the mobile consular services for the past several years.
He says there is a greater need this year due to the Embassy’s decision not to visit last year due to the pandemic, but with the mobile embassy, they are meeting people where they are.
“Because they are here, they can do it here right now, they don’t have to go (to Washington, D.C., or New York) and do it.” — Rumman Ahmed Sagoto, volunteer
“Because they are here, they can do it here right now, they don’t have to go (to Washington, D.C., or New York) and do it. And also they can do the dual citizenship if they want to do it,” he says.
As of Monday night, 1,801 people have been served, according to the Embassy. With walk-ins, they expect to serve 2,200 by Tuesday.
First Secretary Mohammad Asphakul Numan says the mobile consular services provide access to people who otherwise would not be able to easily travel out of state, or those who may need assistance with filling out the required paperwork.
“Bangladeshi Americans born in Bangladesh, who are now American citizens who surrendered their Bangladeshi passports, they now want to get a visa to keep relations or visit, the Bangladeshi government can give them an No Visa Required (NVR). If someone wants to stay for 10 years, there is no visa required.”
The Embassy of Bangladesh came to Michigan to serve Metro Detroit’s Bangladeshi community this weekend. They estimate they’ll serve 2,200 people by Tuesday.
Saima Khan has been helping to schedule appointments and process the NVRs.
“Today I know we have 190 NVRs,” she says. “We have about 200 renewals. Three, four new passports and then I think about like five power of attorneys. So, yeah, I think it’s pretty useful to have the mobile consular too because all this stuff people would have had to go to like Washington, D.C., to do…so coming here once a year, really helps.”
Mohammed Haque says many area residents need help filling out forms in English because many people don’t speak English or know how to fill out the paperwork.
“So we are helping … them because they are our community … so we help our people. That’s why I’m here.”
“Michigan is a starting point for Bangladeshis. … The community (is) rapidly growing.” — Muhith Mahmud, Michigan Bangladeshi American Democratic Caucus president
Muhith Mahmud is president of the Michigan Bangladeshi American Democratic Caucus. He volunteered his time over the weekend to facilitate the consular services.
“Michigan is a starting point for Bangladeshis,” he says.
“I think we stand in second, second most populated Bangladeshi populated city in Michigan beside in New York,” he points out. “The community … we are rapidly growing.”
Shuab Miah of Shelby Township says it’s his first time coming to the mobile consular services.
“This is my first time. For my family I went to Washington, D.C. I did not have my passport ready at the time so I was the only one needing it. So it’s because they’re here is a great opportunity to just take care of that right now.”
Services are available through Tuesday, March 2. For more information visit bdembassyusa.org.
This story was originally published for WDET.org.
Creating Cheesecake for the Culture
Rifath Ahmed makes South Asian flavored American desserts
by Nargis Hakim Rahman
Rifath Ahmed’s father Shahin Ahmed moved from Bangladesh to Michigan in 1980 when he was 16 years-old. During that time he lived with a cousin in Detroit. He took drafting classes at Cass Tech High School and worked to provide for his family in his home country. He later went back to Bangladesh, got married and moved to Hamtramck, Mich. with his family in 1987. He also opened the Bangladeshi grocery store Bengal Spices with his brother Shamim Ahmed.
Rifath says she grew up in a joint family among other Bangladeshis.
“Like every childhood memory, adolescent memory that has to do with family is always tied in Hamtramck, Michigan,” she says.
“Like every childhood memory, adolescent memory that has to do with family is always tied in Hamtramck, Michigan,” she says.
Identity played a huge role in how she saw herself. At 11-years-old she moved to Sterling Heights, going from a city with many Bangladeshis to one where she was the only Bangladeshi in her school.
“It was a huge culture shock,” she says.
Over the years Rifath reconnected with Bangladeshis, until she moved to Houston in 2016, where she was either the only Bangladeshi or Bangladeshi from Sylhet, a city in northeast Banglaesh, in the room.
Now Rifath launched Sweets & Saffron in Houston in October 2020 via Instagram to celebrate the best of both her worlds to create fusion desserts, borrowing from Bangladeshi flavored sweets (Bangladeshis are known for their sweets) and adding them to American desserts like cheesecakes, doughnuts, or mousse.
Rifath debuted her sweets at her friend’s Halloween masquerade ball. She made ladoos, round yellowish-orange sweets made of flour, sugar and fat, that looked like truffles shaped like pumpkins, earning her the nickname Dr. Frankenstein for her invention.
In college Rifath served as the treasurer for the student organization Wayne State University’s Bangladeshi Students’ Association in 2008-2009 in Detroit.
During one of the student organization fairs she remembers serving Bangladeshi snacks such as fyaazis, lentil fritters, chana biran, fried chickpeas, and zulafis, a sweet made with fried batter that’s soaked in simple syrup. She noticed people were hesitant to try the Bangladeshi sweets, often saying they were unfamiliar or too sweet.
This led her to thinking about ways to introduce Bangladeshi foods to non-Bangladeshis. She found herself taking desi inspired desserts to functions where she was often the only Bangladeshi in the room. For example she added kulfi, South Asian ice cream in flavors like pistachio, to cheesecake.
“Maybe if I fuse it with something, because some people don't want to reach for something foreign to them,” she says.
“Maybe if I fuse it with something, because some people don't want to reach for something foreign to them,” she says.
She says the concept was a hit, and she loves cheesecake.
On the other side, she noticed desi kids reached for American desserts at dinner parties more than Bangladeshi sweets.
“They wanted cupcakes, brownies, or ice cream. So I was like okay well how about if I keep fusing these things into cheesecake,” she says.
She says creating desi-flavored desserts helps her contribute and hold onto her culture.
“I’m really happy to see that all these people claiming their cultures and putting it into art and dance and acting on Instagram. It’s very inspiring,” she says.
She adds, and then she would have cravings.
“Where can I find gulab jamun (a South Asian sweet) doughnuts? I guess I can make it!,” she says.
Her business Sweets & Saffron is symbolic to who she is.
“When you grow up in America, no matter what you’ll always have this Bengali identity. You fuse yourself into the American but then realize that you can have both identities,” she says.
Mango Lassi Mousse
Courtesy of Rifath Ahmed
Rifath Ahmed shared this recipe of Mango Lassi Mousse, a tribute to her father’s mango lassis that he would make for Rifath and her brother as kids.