Najma Chowdhury

Najma Chowdhury (26 February 1942 – 8 August 2021) was a Bangladeshi academic. She served as the adviser to the Habib administration.

She was a pioneer in establishing women's studies in Bangladesh. She founded the Women and Gender Studies department of the University of Dhaka in 2000. She was an adviser to the first caretaker government in 1996. She was awarded the Ekushey Padak, Bangladesh's second-highest civilian honour, for research in 2008.

Early life and education Chowdhury was born on 26 February 1942 to a Bengali Muslim family in Sylhet. She was the third child of Chowdhury Imamuzzaman and Amirunnesa Khatun after the death of their first two children. Her mother, Amurunnesa Khatun, was a homemaker, while her father, Chowdhury Imamuzzaman, was a civil engineer.

Education Her early schooling was in Assam, then in British India. The family moved to Dhaka, East Pakistan, when her father found a new job after independence from Britain when East Pakistan separated from India. She played guitar for Bangladesh Betar before going to the United Kingdom for her PhD. The book won the Victoria Schuck Award in 1995. The American Political Science Association called the book the best book for 1994.

She served as Bangladesh's representative at the United Nations General Assembly in 1978 and 1986. During this period she was also a participant at the UNESCO General Conference in Belgrade in 1980, the World Conference on Women in Nairobi in 1985, and the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. Her research further studied systemic discrimination within institutions that disadvantaged women across professions and across cultures and class divides.

Politics and non-profit Chowdhury served as an advisor in the first caretaker government led by Muhammad Habibur Rahman in 1996. She served in the Ministry of Women and Children and the Ministry of Social Welfare, Labour and Manpower. She was 79. She is buried at the Banani graveyard in Dhaka.

Published works