Kaberi Gayen

Kaberi Gayen is a Bangladeshi academic, author, and social activist known for her outspoken views on the oppression of minorities and gender inequality in Bangladesh.

She is a professor of the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism at the University of Dhaka, as well as a visiting lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University, United Kingdom.

Early life

Gayen was born in a Bengali Kayastha family in Gopalganj, Bangladesh. She did her schooling from Barisal Government Women's College, and travelled to Dhaka in 1989 to obtain an honours degree in mass communication and journalism from the University of Dhaka - for which she was awarded the Dil Noshin Khanam Gold Medal. She then completed her master's from the same university in 1990, thereafter travelling to Edinburgh to obtain a PhD from Edinburgh Napier University in 2004. Her thesis was on Modelling the Influence of Communications on Fertility Behaviour of Women in Rural Bangladesh.

Career

Gayen is a full-time professor at the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism of University of Dhaka. She is also visiting lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University, United Kingdom. Johannes Karl Mühl, the German academic from Hochschule Furtwangen University, credited her with helping him write his book "Organizational Trust: Measurement, Impact, and the Role of Management Accountants".

Social activism

Gayen is a vocal human rights activist who has spoken for the rights of the Hindu, Christian, and Atheist minorities, such as the atheist blogger Asif Mohiuddin. She has campaigned for justice in the Bangladeshi Judiciary, and is vocal against religious extremism and government oppression. She has supported The International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh. She has protested against the arrest of Labour rights activists and spoken against the issues of gender-inequality and sexual assault prevalent in the Bangladeshi society.

Militant threat

She was one of the ten people who received death threats from Islamist terrorists Ansarullah Bangla Team. The List included HT Imam - advisor to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Vice-Chancellor of Dhaka University, and Professor Muhammed Zafar Iqbal. The Militant group had also admitted to the murder of blogger Avijit Roy.