It's a complicated moment for an industry that today accounts for nearly 80 percent of Bangladesh's exports, marks it as the second largest textile producer in the world, and is the source of four million jobs—many of which pay less than $2 (U.S.) a day.

Bangladesh and textiles have a long relationship. Husband-and-wife photography team Jean and Franc Shor's notes on the back of this early 1950s photo locate this dugout canoe on the Shitalakshya River, just north of the city of Narayanganj—by then already a garment trade hub specializing in muslin and jute. Today Narayanganj continues to be an important river port and a center of jute trade for Bangladesh.

The notes also alternately label the country "East Pakistan"