Real life drama of child soap star
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The real life story of a Bangladeshi child soap star has turned out
to be every bit as dramatic as her trials and tribulations on screen.
Thirteen-year-old Shimu starred in a popular television serial which promoted girls' education and highlighted the evils of child marriages.
As her screen character veered from one crisis to another, her real life was also in turmoil.
Paid only a nominal fee for her TV appearances, Shimu was forced to drop out of school because of poverty.
She faced the prospect of a childhood marriage when her family sent her back to her home village, and her plight made newspaper headlines.
But with the help of local supporters and an international charity, she is now back at school and back on the TV screen.
Real life troubles
Shimu is one of some 30 children in a street theatre group, called Tokai Nattya Dol that meets most afternoons in one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Dhaka.
Many of them are struggling to stay at school, with most working part-time to help their parents. But they all aspire to become TV stars one day.
Shimu, the star of a hit Bangladeshi television serial that promotes girls' education, is their role model.
Her role depicts the life of a poor girl, whose parents want her to drop out of school, so that she can go to town and work in a garment factory.
The series turned the teenager into a popular star. But then real life troubles - in the form of poverty - threatened both her education and her career.
"I wanted to continue studying," she said, "but my grandparents ran into financial difficulties, they could no longer afford to send me to school.
"They sent me back to the village, and I had to leave my theatre group and go back home. But then Unicef (The UN children's' fund) and my group came to my aid, and provided financial support for me and my family which allowed me to stay in Dhaka."
Shimu's father died before she was born. Her mother remarried, leaving her to be looked after by her grandparents.
Her grandmother, Ayesha Bibi, says that cash shortages have always been a problem.
Assistance
"We were struggling to keep her at school," she said. "So we decided to send her back home, because at that time an order was issued to evict us from the slum where we lived.
"We felt that while it was possible for us to live on the streets, for a young girl like her it would not be safe. So we had no option but to send her back to our village home."
Unicef and the makers of the TV serial now provide assistance for Shimu's education. She lives in a slum close to her school, sharing a room with her grandparents.
"I feel a kind of joy living here, because I know everybody here, everybody knows me," she said.
The role Shimu plays in the serial accurately portrays the lifestyle of many poor Bangladeshi girls.
Often they are forced to drop out of school to help at home or earn money for the family. Many parents marry off teenaged girls to get rid of the burden of providing them with food and education.
Shimu herself was under pressure from her family to get married, especially from her grandmother.
"I wanted her to get married... but we couldn't manage enough money to pay for the dowry. If someone agreed to marry her without a dowry, then it would have been possible," said Ayesha Bibi.
"There were several proposals to marry her. But I sought advice from the director of her theatre group, and he told me that we should wait, she is still young."
Shimu - like her alter ego in the TV soap - was adamant that she did not want to marry, and wanted to carry on with her education and acting career. But she admits it will be a difficult battle.
"There is pressure on me to get married," she said, "and my family has made no secret of the fact that it wants to marry me off.
"But thanks to Unicef and my theatre group I have been saved from going down that path. They have saved me, and now my grandparents have been persuaded that for now at least marriage is a bad idea. I now want to follow my career as a famous actress."