Salma has never even heard of the Spice Girls. Her life, hunched over a sewing machine for up to 16 hours a day, is a world away from the luxuries enjoyed by the millionaire pop band.
But while neither knows it, Salma and the Spice Girls are connected. The factory where she has worked for more than five years, off a narrow, winding road three hours’ drive from Dhaka, is where charity T-shirts designed by the group were made.
The £19.40 garments were produced on behalf of the Spice Girls and then sold to raise money for a Comic Relief campaign intended to “champion equality for women”, which pointed out how “women earn less”. It is a reality Salma knows only too well.
It has emerged that Spice Girls T-shirts sold to raise funds for Comic Relief’s Gender Justice campaign were made in a factory in Bangladesh where women are routinely mistreated and overworked.
A report by The Guardian has revealed that the T-shirts, which have the slogan #IWannaBeASpiceGirl emblazoned across the front and the words “gender equality” written on the back, were produced by mainly female machinists who were forced to work up to 16 hours a day, earning the equivalent of $0.45 (Dh1.65) per hour.
The group announced in November that they would be embarking on a reunion tour. One week later, they unveiled a limited edition line of T-shirts, sweatshirts and hooded tops in support of British charity Comic Relief’s Gender Justice programme.
The collaboration received support from a range of high-profile stars, with British athlete Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill, singers Jessie J and Sam Smith, and even Blondie seen proudly sporting the t-shirts.
In a message on the website where the merchandise was sold, the Spice Girls wrote: “Equality and the movement of people power has always been at the heart of the band. It is about equality for all, ‘every boy and every girl’. We recently found out that charities focused on issues faced by women don’t get the funding that they desperately need, so launching a campaign to raise funds for these issues is incredibly important to us and an area we want to support.”
The limited edition T-shirts were sold online for $24.99 (Dh92) by Represent, a crowd-selling platform that enables anyone to create and sell custom merchandise with no upfront costs. The website is currently offering #MarchForOurLives t-shifts, limited edition Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation tees (to raise awareness of conservation efforts), and Stephen Amell Fight Cancer apparel.
Source: The National
