Aarong

Aarong (আড়ং) is a social enterprise chain of Bangladeshi department stores specializing in Bengali ethnic wear and handicrafts. It is owned by the non-profit development agency BRAC, and employs thousands of rural artisans across the country. It currently operates twenty-nine outlets in nine Bangladeshi metropolitan cities.

Controversies


Directorate of National Consumers Rights Protection (DNCRP) fined Tk4.5 lakh to Uttara outlet of Aarong and closed it for a day for selling same products in double price within a gap of five days. Following on a client's complaint that Aarong was selling a panjabi after nearly doubling its price, DNCRP officials visited the chain's flagship store on Jashimuddin Avenue at Uttara on 31 May 2019 and fined them after finding the allegation to be true. Monjur Mohammad Shahriar, deputy director of Directorate of National Consumers Rights Protection (DNCRP) led the drive but he was transferred later.

Asif Mahtab, a part-time teacher of BRAC University held a teacher's conference in January 2024 following the continuation of the textbook controversy in Bangladesh, demonstrated anti-transgenderism by tearing the pages of the seventh grade textbook. In response to this protest, BRAC University authorities fired Asif Mahtab. When the incident went viral on social media, many criticized BRAC and called for a boycott of all BRAC-related products and services. In addition, the Islami Andolan Bangladesh called for a boycott of Aarong and Brac University as part of the anti-transformation protest.