But not everybody enjoys the affluence. Just like any other lower-class people, Parvin Akter’s father owned no land. He worked in other people’s farms or pulled rickshaw all his life.

He died in 2012, leaving a sick wife and four daughters. That’s when a foreign company called ‘Youngone’ built a huge factory not far from Parvin’s home. After hearing that the factory was recruiting workers, Nashima, Parvin’s younger sister, got a job. Soon she started working as a sewing machine operator. The training she had received from a sewing school in downtown Chittagong paid off. Nashima brought home around 6,000 taka (US$77) a month.

Thanks to Nashima, the family could eat three meals a day. But that wasn’t enough. They couldn’t afford to take the sick mother to a doctor, or even a pharmacy. The family had not been able to pay off its 3,000 taka of debt (US$38). Parvin, who had been handling household chores joined the factory last September. With Nashima’s recommendation, she got hired without much trouble. That’s how people usually get jobs in this country-by recommendation from family members or friends.

Parvin is 21 years old. Bangladeshi women around this age usually get married, but Parvin didn’t want to. She’d rather be with her mother. She used to tell her mother, “I won’t get married. I will make money and live with you.”

Parvin was optimistic about the future. She was sure she would be promoted from helper to sewing machine operator within a month or two. She was proud to work for Youngone, the biggest foreign investor in the country.

On January 9, Parvin woke up at 5:30 am as usual. After a simple breakfast, at around 7:00 she left home with Nashima. The sisters were a little bit excited. It was their payday. The Prime Minister recently announced that the minimum wage for garment workers would be increased. The sisters expected at least 1,000 taka (US$13) increase each. “Let’s pay off some of the debt and take mother to the doctor”, Parvin said to Nashima. Soon the sisters passed the guards armed with rifles and entered the main gate of Korean Export Processing Zone (KEPZ).

Parvin went into factory #7, Nashima into #6. In factory #7 Parvin made Puma sports shoes. Youngone, the largest manufacturer for The Northface, also makes clothes and shoes for Nike, Puma and many other global sports brands. It’s one of the largest manufacturers in the global sportswear industry.

Inside the factory, 30 workers form a line. Helper’s place is at the end of each line. Parvin’s job is to remove waste thread and glue from shoes. 250-300 pairs of shoes go through her hands every day.

During work, Parvin’s eyes were irritated by toxic fumes from glue. She didn’t use the restroom while working. It takes about four minutes to get to the restroom, which means she has to leave her station for at least 10 minutes. She’d rather hold on until lunch time instead of being yelled at by the line chief or the manager.

Around 11 o’clock, Parvin received her pay slip. The company raised only 700 taka (US$9) from her previous wage, which was 3800 taka (US$49). The numbers didn’t look right to Parvin, and many other workers seemed to feel the same. The company raised basic pay as per the new legal minimum wage, but cut back the allowances. The gross pay was far less than workers anticipated. This was why the company delayed payday for several days without explanation, thought the sisters, to figure out a trick to minimize the wage increase.

As workers were agitated, the managers stopped all the machines. Instead of having lunch, about 5,000 workers gathered in front of the factory. Soon the police showed up. A policeman called two workers among the crowd to a halt and said, “Get back into the factory right now. Get back to work!” One of the workers talked back. “We won’t go back until we receive the right salary.” The policeman started to beat the two workers.

Haruhn, a quality inspector stepped up. “We didn’t break any machine or damage the factory. Why do you beat the workers?”

The policeman said, “So, you are the workers’ representative?” He grabbed Haruhn by his collar, dragged to the guard post, and started beating him with other policemen.

Angry workers surrounded the guard post and started chanting. “Let go of Haruhn! Stop beating Haruhn!” Feeling intimidated, the police fired tear gas. Some workers started to throw brick fragments at the police.

Nashima was terrified. She was scared the flame from the tear gas shell might set fire on her clothes. All she could think at the moment was that she and her sister should go home. Nashima ran into the factory to grab her hijab from the workplace. As a Muslim woman, she didn’t feel comfortable outside without hijab.

As she was getting back out, Nashima heard several gunshots followed by sharp screams. A woman was lying on the ground, surrounded by many workers. She slowly approached the woman. It was her sister, Parvin. There was a bullet hole in her head. Workers stopped a car to send her to Chittagong Medical College  Hospital.

But her heart stopped beating before crossing Karnaphuli Bridge, the gateway to downtown Chittagong. Parvin never received her fourth salary.

There is a place well known to sailors who visit the Port of Chittagong. It’s called ‘Singapore market’ located in Agrabad district. Big old buildings are full of tiny shops. These shops look shabby from the outside, but inside they are full of new clothes labeled Tommy Hilfiger, GAP, LEVI‘s, Calvin Klein and so on.

The clerk of Azmir Collection welcomed us and forced to try on a Tommy Hilfiger shirt that cost 1,000 taka ($13). When asked if the shirt was authentic, he asserted. “I know people who have connections inside the EPZ. I call them, and they bring me the clothes. They bring what’s left in the factories. So I can’t get same brands every day.”

A Northface winter jacket, likely to be from a factory of Youngone, was in another shop. It’s a jacket no one will need in this country where it hardly ever gets below 10℃, even in the winter. It was 3,500 taka($45). It would be sold at ten times that price in South Korea. A shop owner said that major customers at the Singapore market are Chinese and South Korean sailors.

At the gates of every EPZ, police stop every car and open its trunk to make sure export goods are not smuggled into the domestic market. But ‘mastan’, meaning ‘muscle man’ in Bengali can pass EPZ gates with goods. A lady who has been working as a manager in Youngone for a long time explained what these gangsters do. “They smuggle clothes out of factories. They do a lot of things. It’s an open secret.”

Most of the workers we met were reluctant to talk. A garment worker who helped us arrange meetings with other workers explained why. “Neighbors or colleagues can inform a factory manager who talked to reporters from Korea. Then the manager would send mastans. Between 5 and 10 mastans with weapons would raid the worker’s home at night.”

A worker who is employed in a Korean owned factory in Dhaka called us on the phone a few hours after the interview. “If you crosscheck what I said with the factory management, I can get in big trouble. One of the managers can mobilize about 40 mastans. I might have to leave my village and my job.” Many workers from South Korean-owned factories refused to meet us at all. A labor activist said, “Most of the workers are from different villages. That makes it harder for them to fight together against mastans. That’s why workers fear mastans.” Sidigul Islam, who leads a labor organization in Chittagong said, “Mastans do business with samples, faulty goods and remnants from garment factories. And when the factory management call, they go and threaten workers not to organize any protest. Mastans are connected with local police and politicians. Police won’t do anything even when workers report their crimes.”

Farida Akhter, the executive director of Bangladeshi NGO ‘UBINIG’ has been investigating working conditions in the garment industry since the 1980s. She said, “When you learn about Bangladeshi garment industry, you can‘t miss mastans. They play important roles. In some cases, they instigate workers to start a riot upon the factory owner’s request. They stage a violent situation before the workers are actually ready to organize themselves. Then the police would come in and arrest the workers who are capable of organizing genuine protest. It’s a kind of pre-emptive action.”

The international cricket tournament ICC World T20 was held in Bangladesh in March. Bangladesh was a British colony until 1947, and cricket is the most popular sport among its people. On game days, traffic congestion is worse than usual. In the heavy traffic, our rental car was stuck next to a black pickup truck. Muscular men in black hoods, black sunglasses, black uniforms were in the truck. One of the men with an automatic rifle on his shoulder leaned down to look inside our car.

“Hands off your camera. Don’t look at him!” said Reza in a low but desperate voice. Our driver Ajimul also shut his mouth and fixed his eyes to the front. For about three minutes until the black pickup truck turned away from us, nobody in the rental car said a word.

The men in black were members of the Rapid Action Battalion, commonly called RAB. RAB was formed in 2004 to support the ’war on terror‘ led by the U.S. and the UK. Elite members of military, police and various law enforcement agencies joined the RAB.

On July 26, 2008, Novera Khatun, an 80 year old woman stood in front of Jhenidah Press Club in Dhaka. This is the place where NGOs, political parties, labor unions hold press conferences. The old woman begged the government to save her son from “crossfire” and prosecute him instead if he had committed any crime. Her son Mizanur Rahman Tutul, a physician, was arrested by the RAB the previous day.

In our earlier interviews with activists, we were confused by the word “crossfire”. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, it’s a noun meaning “firing (as in combat) from two or more points so that the lines of fire cross”, or “a situation where in the forces of opposing factions meet, cross, or clash”.

In Bangladesh, this word gained new meaning. Many people were shot dead a few days after being arrested by the RAB. In many cases their bodies showed signs of beating or torture. RAB issued official statements that the criminal was killed in crossfire. According to RAB, 622 people were killed in crossfire from 2004 to 2010. Human rights organizations claim there are much more victims of crossfire. RAB gave the word ‘crossfire’ a new meaning. It became a verb meaning ‘to execute someone without legal procedures’.

Mizanur Rahman Tutul, the physician was “crossfired” the day after the old mother’s press conference. He was accused of leading an outlawed communist party.

Taking care of workers’ protests is a part of RAB‘s mission. RAB was deployed in CEPZ in December 2010 when many Youngone workers were killed. “First they intimidate with threats. Then they start beating. After that they fire blanks, and then they fire live ammo. They are horrific”, said Mashu, the garment cutter in a Youngone’s factory. International human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch(view) and Amnesty International condemn the RAB as a “killing squad”.

At the end of 2013, the South Korean Embassy in Bangladesh called for help from RAB and DGFI (Directorate General of Forces Intelligence). The embassy asked the RAB and DGFI to protect South Korean-owned factories when unrest occurred in multiple locations at the same time, because then local police and industrial police might not be able to control the situation. Receiving an affirmative answer, the embassy informed factory owners to call for help whenever they had trouble.

Historically speaking, the garment industry had been relying on violent force of state and capital since its beginning. In the 18th century, a number of inventions that brought cotton gin, spinning and weaving machines made cotton manufacture a mechanized industry. The explosive growth of production capacity called for enormous supply of raw cotton. Only America had large enough land to meet the demand. But land doesn’t grow crops by itself. Raw cotton was grown by slave labor of African-American slaves in the plantations of the southern states.

In the early 20th century, young women from rural areas filled the garment factories in the cities of the West. They had to endure low pay and long working hours. Attempts to take collective action were often frustrated by police or other state institutions.

It was natural that the most of 15,000 women who joined the historical march through New York City in 1908 demanding shorter hours and better pay were garment workers. International Women’s Day is celebrated on March 8th every year to commemorate this march.

Three years after the march, a fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City. The doors on each floors of the factory were locked from outside to prevent workers from stealing or taking unauthorized breaks. More than 140 women, most of them in their teens or twenties, died. This tragedy drew significant attention to working conditions of women in the West.

After the two World Wars came the golden age of capitalism. And the distance between consumers and manufacturers increased drastically. Post-war Japan became the production base of garments for the Western consumers, followed by South Korea.

In the 1960s and 1970s South Korean female garment workers were faced with deadly working conditions. On Nov. 13, 1970 Jeon Tae-il, a male garment cutter and a pioneer of South Korea’s labor movement, committed suicide by self-immolation in protest of the poor working conditions in the sweatshops of Seoul. Physical and sexual violence against female garment workers were common. The military dictatorship trampled attempts to form labor unions in the nation’s biggest export industry. Gangs hired by factory owners and police worked together to suppress labor disputes. Factory owners and state institutions worked together to make blacklists of labor activists in order to keep them out of factories.

In the age of fast fashion where clothes are cheaply made and quickly consumed, the rights of garment workers are neglected more than ever. Governments in Third World countries seem not to hesitate to shoot their own garment workers to “protect the industry”. On January 9, garment worker Parvin Akter was shot dead in Bangladesh. A week earlier at least five garment workers were shot dead by an airborne unit in Cambodia. KTNC Watch, a joint network of NGOs, lawyers and labor unions monitoring Korean companies abroad pointed out in its field investigation report that “The forces ruthlessly assaulted unarmed workers even in front of the UN office. It‘s definite proof that the Cambodian government puts the garment industry’s benefit before workers’ human and labor rights”.

Faced by overwhelming power, workers accept their fate. Majeda Katun, Parvin’s mother, couldn‘t stop sobbing while telling us about her daughter’s death. But she concluded the conversation by saying “Parvin was unlucky.” Mohamed Haruhn, the quality inspector who was beaten by the police, which triggered the angers of other workers in KEPZ this January said, “Neither the company nor the police apologized. But I don’t complain. After the protest the company raised our wage. Maybe that was an apology.” Shohidul, a sewing machine operator at Youngone who was injured by a bullet to the head, said, “We gained everything we wanted. So we keep quiet.”

Masum returned to Bangladesh and became a labor activist after living for 10 years as a migrant worker in South Korea. He said “Some say that Bangladeshis are the happiest people in the world. But I disagree. I don’t think they are happy. They just give up easily.”

Thanks to cheap labor in Bangladesh, controlled by brutal forces, consumers in other parts of the world wear cheap clothes. An agent who works as a middleman between British buyers and Bangladeshi factories said “In London, a pack of cigarette costs 7 pounds ($11.3). A T-shirt costs 5 pounds. 4 pairs of boxer shorts are sold at 4 pounds. Garments are the only products that get cheaper year after year.”

Dhaka is not the most pleasant city in the world. First-time visitors are alarmed by its noise. Drivers of junky cars and buses honk every other second to make their way through crowded streets. Dust from dirt roads and smoke from garbage fires in backstreets make breathing difficult. Many beggars appeal for money, with all kinds of disabilities. It’s awkward to either meet or avoid their eyes. And the mosquitoes seem to be more attracted to foreign blood.

There are very few sanctuaries where you can escape the unpleasant environment. The Westin Dhaka Hotel, located in the center of Gulshan area, is one. If you pass the guards who sweep the bottom and trunk of your car, the sharp eyed policemen armed with rifles, the metal detector and x-ray scanner, you enter the exceptionally quiet, clean, luxurious space.

One night stay in this five star hotel costs around $400, equivalent to 3 months salary for an experienced sewing operator in Bangladesh. Most of the hotel guests who spend that amount of money work for the global fashion brands, the buyers.

Last February, GAP held a meeting in the hotel. People from the San Francisco headquarters, from the Dhaka liaison office and the local factory owners gathered in a conference room. People from GAP began the meeting with the usual compliment, saying the factories had been doing fine and they were looking forward to another good year.

A young owner raised his hand and politely asked a question, in fluent British-accented English, that every other owner had in mind. “Could you raise our price?”

The Rana Plaza collapse killed at least 1,129 people and brought huge change in Bangladesh. The western consumers who were angry and upset with the tragedy initiated the change.

The Swedish brand H&M is the biggest importer of products made in Bangladesh. Swedish citizens demonstrated their anger with a poster that contrasted smiling face of Karl-Johan Persson, the CEO of H&M, with a crying Bangladeshi woman in front of the ruins of Rana Plaza.

Consumers in other western countries reacted similarly. There were few fashion brands that didn’t source from Bangladesh. Ethical consumers harshly blamed global brands for neglecting the lives of Bangladeshi workers while profiting from their cheap labor.

H&M signed on ‘The Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety (ACCORD)’ with international labor organizations. Zara, Marks & Spencer, Carrefour and many other European companies followed. GAP, Wal-Mart, Northface and some other North American companies formed ‘Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety (Alliance)’.

The buyers collected money and started safety inspections on their suppliers in Bangladesh. ACCORD and Alliance demanded that factories install fire safety facilities such as fire-proof doors, emergency exits, and sprinklers. Otherwise the buyers would not place orders. For the first time in history, global buyers collectively engaged to improve factory safety.

Buyers also showed their support for a minimum wage increase in Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi government raised garment worker’s minimum wage from 3,000 taka (US$39) to 5,300 taka (US$68) in January, but some factory owners felt that was a financial burden.

David Savman, the country manager of H&M liaison office in Dhaka sent an e-mail to its suppliers last December. “We believe that it is positive for the textile industry of Bangladesh and support this increase… H&M also acknowledges that this means increased costs and we will therefore revise all prices on placed orders that are affected… For all orders that will be placed from week 51 onward we will negotiate and add the new minimum salary”, he wrote. Many other buyers sent similar messages.

Despite these new changes, there is one thing the buyers won’t change. That is their position on illegal ‘subcontracting’. For many years the buyers blamed subcontracting for accidents in their supplier‘s factories, an easy way to dodge social condemnation themselves.

The Tazreen fire is a good example. The workers were producing shorts for Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart first denied any relationship with the factory. However clothes with Wal-Mart label were soon found in the ruins. Then Wal-Mart blamed its supplier Simco for illegally subcontracting to Tazreen. Simco argued Wal-Mart had granted permission for the subcontracting, but its claim was dismissed. Simco, which had been supplying Wal-Mart for over 20 years, was put on Wal-Mart’s blacklist. Wal-Mart even refused to clear the previous orders from Simco that had already arrived at the Port of Los Angeles. Simco, which was running 14 lines before the Tazreen fire, now runs only 4 lines. About 1,500 workers lost their jobs.

The buyers‘ logic is that they can make sure the factories don’t have any problems if they are directly contracted, but if the initial contractor secretly subcontracts to another factory, it‘s impossible to monitor. After the Rana Plaza collapse, buyers have emphasized their ’zero tolerance‘ of subcontracting even more. However, factory owners in Bangladesh say it’s hypocrisy.

Rubana Huq, the Managing Director of Mohammadi Group said, “Buyers know their suppliers‘ exact production capacity. Let’s say my factory can produce 100,000 pieces of one style. If the buyer orders 500,000 pieces, he should ask who will produce 400,000 of those pieces. But buyers often don‘t ask those questions. They don’t want to know more.”

As of April, 4,417 factories were registered at Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA). Though there are no official statistics on unregistered factories, local businessmen estimate around 2,000 unregistered factories are in operation. Unregistered factories subcontract orders from registered factories. Subcontracting occurs between registered factories as well. Subcontractors often subcontract again to other factories. Throughout the process, facilities deteriorate, workers’ wage decrease, and transparency is lost.

The Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University Stern School of Business published a report(view) titled ‘Business as usual is not an option: Supply chains and sourcing after Rana Plaza’ last April. The report concludes that indirect sourcing (subcontracting) has become an essential feature of the garment sector in Bangladesh, and is likely to be important in the future. The report warns that efforts to improve the industry are not likely to succeed without addressing this system.

Muzaffar Siddique, the managing director of Simco said, “There was subcontracting in the past, it’s here now, and it will continue in the future.”

In February, GAP informed its employees that it would raise its minimum hourly rate from $7.25 to $9 this year and to $10 next year for its U.S. workers. A few weeks later president Barack Obama made an unannounced stop at the Gap store in midtown Manhattan, to spotlight the company’s new policy.

“It’s not only good for them and their families, it’s also good for the entire economy”, Obama said as he bought GAP sweaters for his wife and daughters.

However, wage increases for Bangladeshi workers only mean increase of cost. The factory owners who were waiting for an answer from GAP in the hotel’s conference room in Dhaka last February were soon disappointed.

A participant of the meeting said on condition of anonymity, “GAP’s answer was that our productivity needs to be increased, not the price.”

Another participant said “Trousers for example, the price we get from GAP is $8-9. Those trousers are sold for $30-40 at American stores. How can they tell me to lower the price when my total labor cost has increased by 40%? It‘s unreasonable pressure. Nobody in GAP understands us. It looks like everybody is eager to show performance by cutting the price.”

A factory owner who supplies to both GAP and H&M said, “Yes, H&M raised prices, but only for a while. The next season, prices went down to where they had been or even below. What they said about raising price was all for show, for the media.”

“Buyers are two-faced”, said Fazlul Hoque, former president of Bangladesh Employers Federation. “They always say that they welcome the wage increase. But when we ask them to share the costs, they refuse. They say, we know about your wage increase but Vietnam and Cambodia offer lower prices. That’s a very common  dialogue. In Vietnam or Cambodia, they might say Bangladesh offers lower prices. Competition is too intense, not just between different countries but also within Bangladesh. Buyers always take advantage of the competition.”

The Karnaphuli River runs through Chittagong into the Bay of Bengal. West of the river’s mouth is the Port of Chittagong, from where clothes made in Bangladesh are shipped abroad.

Long ago, the international trading port was on the other side of the river. The ancient port is now inside the Korea Export Processing Zone (KEPZ) owned by Youngone. The development began in late 1990’s, but it’s still mostly unoccupied, with only 4-5 factories operating. Bangladesh, a country with a large population and small amount of land, sold this plot, equivalent to about 700 soccer fields, to a foreign investor.

Parvin Akter, 21, a helper in a factory in the KEPZ, was shot and killed by police during the protest on January 9. Traces of Parvin were erased quickly. She underwent an autopsy at Chittagong Medical College Hospital, but her sister Nashima, who brought her body, was not informed of the autopsy.

Parvin’s body was brought back home around midnight. The village foreman and men probably from Youngone urged burial, saying the body might decompose. Muslims are buried shortly after dying, but burial in the middle of the night is unusual.

Parvin was buried beside the ‘parrots pond’ near their home. When they were children, the sisters used to swim and do laundry in the pond where parrots often visited. When big trees around the pond were cut down many years ago, the parrots left and never came back.

Several days after the funeral, people from Youngone came to Parvin’s home and took all her documents related to the factory, including her ID card and payslip. The only evidence left showing Parvin’s existence is the blurry picture of her bleeding from the head after the shooting .

4,500 taka (US$58) was printed on the last pay slip Parvin received. It was far less than she expected after the minimum wage increase. That was because the company cut down allowances.

Parvin’s colleagues received properly increased salary several days after her death. Parvin didn’t receive her salary for December, but her family received compensation of 600,000 taka (US$7,800) from Youngone. It’s a fortune the family could never have imagined. Parvin’s mother Majeda Katun let one of her acquaintance take care of the money. She was only told that the money is in a bank account that earns no interest. “My daughter calls me mommy, but money doesn’t”, cried the mother. Nowhere in the world can money replace a daughter.

There is a village called Bondor Bazar between their house and the factory. It has been an international trading post since ancient times. Nowadays the village is home to garment workers from different parts of the country.

In March, the Hankyoreh conducted a little survey of 10 Youngone workers in this village, and found out their average monthly pay was 7,350 taka (US$95). Their average length of employment was around 2 years.

A Northface shop manager in a department store in downtown Seoul welcomed us. He said he started his career as an employee of Youngone, but switched to running his own business several years ago.

Most fashion brands in South Korea do not operate stores with their own employees, but with self employed people often called ‘shop masters’. Shop masters employ clerks. Clerks are irrregular jobs. They are usually employed according to verbal contracts, and earn a little bit more than the minimum wage of 5,210 won (US$4.90) per hour. By outsourcing retail, fashion companies are minimizing direct employment costs.

When asked if customers care where the products are made, the Northface shop manager answered they do. “Yes, the customers are very sensitive about where the products are made”, he said. “They prefer ‘made in Korea’. If a product is from Bangladesh or Vietnam, many customers raise doubts about its quality.”

Not many South Korean customers are interested in what’s happening in Bangladesh, in the supply chain.