Features | Society | South Asia

Why Bangladeshi Villagers Are Worried About the Iran-US War

Though located around 5,000 kilometers away from the Persian Gulf, rural Bangladesh has a major stake in the conflict.

Mohammad Azaharul Islam watches war-related news on an online news portal while sitting outside his home in Bamonghona village, Gazipur district, Bangladesh.

Around a month ago, rice planting was completed across the fields of Bamonghona, a village in Kaliakair upazila in Bangladesh’s Gazipur district. Though the village is not far from the capital Dhaka in terms of distance, in many ways it still feels far removed from the country’s basic facilities. There is still no proper paved road connecting the village to the local market, making access to medical care, education, and other essential services difficult, especially during the rainy season.

Now, as the fields fill with paddy, corn, lemons, and seasonal vegetables waiting to be harvested, life in the village has entered a slower period. Farmers are less busy for the moment, and many elderly men spend their afternoons at tea stalls or sitting in courtyard gatherings, passing time in conversation.

But recently, their conversations have not been about crops, weather, or local politics. Instead, the talk is about war.

“Wad Netanyahu killed?”

“When will the war stop?” 

“Today Iran did amazing with their bombings.” 

“Who knows what will happen to Bangladesh’s oil price?”

These snippets of conversation drift through the village air. From small tea stalls to courtyard gatherings, from roadside benches to a few old men sitting alone under trees, each one holding a Chinese smartphone connected to a weak but functioning 3/4G network. The war they are talking about is not in Bangladesh. It is happening nearly 5,000 kilometers away, in the Middle East. Yet in villages like Bamonghona, the war feels strangely close.

In the same village, Mohammad Azaharul Islam sat on the balcony of his house, holding a smartphone and watching war updates on a Bengali news portal on YouTube. The video showed missiles, smoke, and breaking news banners about Iran, Israel, and the United States.

Like many families in rural Bangladesh, Azaharul’s household depends heavily on income from abroad. His eldest son works in Singapore. His younger son, Rakib Hossain, works at a petrol filling station in Riyadh, where he has been employed since December 2023.

Rakib had returned home on two-and-a-half months’ leave to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr and get married. His return flight to Riyadh is scheduled for April 14, 2026. But this time, his visit home was overshadowed by news of war.

“It has become a new tension,” Rakib told The Diplomat. “I already work 365 days a year, 12 hours a day. I thought Saudi people were kind, but I found the reality to be different. At the petrol pump, it often happens that after filling the tank, some people just drive away without paying. Then I have to pay that bill myself. I earn only about 50,000 taka a month.”

He said he was preparing for another two-year contract, hoping to save enough money to move to another country, perhaps Singapore or Malaysia.

“If my company is affected by the conflict and sends me back [to Bangladesh], it will not be a total loss because I have already recovered the money I spent to go to Saudi Arabia,” he said. “But the hard work I am doing, I need to save a good amount of money so that I can move somewhere better.”

Pictured here in front of his house, Rakib Hossain, who has been working in Saudi Arabia since 2023, is currently on a two-and-a-half-month leave and is scheduled to return on April 14, 2026. Photo by Saqlain Rizve.

For Azaharul Islam and his wife, the war is not a distant event playing out on a phone screen. Rather it has become a constant source of anxiety that now lives inside their home.

“We heard that a few Bangladeshis have already been killed,” Azaharul said. “I have only two sons. Both live abroad and work very hard. They have wives and children. We are always worried about them. But we also cannot tell them not to go, because there are very few income opportunities here. Farming does not pay well now, and garment jobs pay very little.”

He said sending his sons abroad required enormous financial risk.

“In 2012, I sent my first son to Singapore by spending almost 10 lakh (one million) taka. But he had to return several times because of job problems. Then in 2023, I sent my second son to Saudi Arabia by spending around 700,000 taka. Because of them, we can live a little better in this village. Who knows how long this conflict will continue? The bombing is happening around Saudi Arabia, which is very frightening.”

Stories like Azaharul Islam’s are not limited to one village. Across rural Bangladesh, millions of families depend on income from relatives working abroad, particularly in the Middle East. 

Around 7 million Bangladeshis currently live and work in Middle Eastern countries. Saudi Arabia hosts the largest number, with around 3.5 million Bangladeshis, who remit $5 billion annually back to their home country. Bangladeshi workers began joining the Saudi Arabia labor market since the 1970s and now make up the largest expatriate community there.

Behind Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates has around 850,000 Bangladeshi migrant workers. Qatar hosts around 400,000, Kuwait 350,000-400,000, Oman more than 700,000, and Bahrain more than 100,000. Most of them work in construction, transport, cleaning, restaurants, retail shops, and petrol stations – jobs that are physically demanding, low-paid, and often insecure. Yet for many rural families, these jobs remain the most reliable path to financial stability.

The money these workers send home has reshaped rural Bangladesh over the past two decades. In 2025, Bangladesh received more than $30 billion in remittances, much of it from the Middle East. This money builds houses, pays for education, supports elderly parents, funds small businesses, and keeps village economies running. 

In many villages, the difference between a tin-roof house and a concrete building is remittance money. The difference between a child........

© The Diplomat