Najma Chowdhury

Najma Chowdhury (26 February 1942 – 8 August 2021) was a Bangladeshi academic.

She was a pioneer in establishing women studies in Bangladesh. She founded the Women and Gender Studies department of the University of Dhaka in 2000. She was an advisor 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. Her father was from the Chowdhury Bari of Pitua-Sadrabad in Nabiganj. They were descendants of Shah Sadruddin Qureshi, a Qurayshite associate of Shah Jalal who partook in the Conquest of Sylhet in 1303.

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.

Chowdhury was admitted in class three into Bidya Mandir School in Dhaka. Then again in class four, she was admitted into PN Girls' School in Rajshahi. She passed her SSC entrance exam from Kamrunnesa Girls' School in 1956. She stood eighth among girls in East Pakistan Secondary Education Board. She passed her HSC from Holy Cross College, Dhaka. She stood ninth in the merit list in East Pakistan Higher Secondary Education Board.

Chowdhury completed her graduation and post graduation in political science in University of Dhaka. She played guitar for Bangladesh Betar before going to the United Kingdom for her PhD.

Academic
Chowdhury started her career as a lecturer in the political science department in the University of Dhaka in 1963. In 1966, she went on a Commonwealth Scholarship to School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London to obtain her PhD. She returned to Bangladesh in 1972 and was the chairperson of political science department from 1984 to 1987. During her tenure in the department, she introduced courses related to women's empowerment and development into the curriculum. She also established the Centre for Women Studies, a research centre within the university.

Chowdhury served as a visiting scholar at University of Minnesota in 1988 under a Fulbright fellowship for three months. She was a friend of political scientist Barbara J. Nelson. The duo edited a book Women and Politics Worldwide in 1994 published by Yale University Press. 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.

She helped establish the Women and Gender Studies department in the University of Dhaka in 2000. Chowdhury joined the department as a professor in 2003 and later served as chairperson. She was also professor emeritus at the university. Through her contributions for women's empowerment and development studies she was considered an inspiration for the women of Bangladesh. Her 2010 book Of Mangroves and Monsters chronicled women's participation in Bangladesh's political institutions and policy-making bodies and explored their peripheral involvement and marginalisation. She used this to study the paradoxical nature of women's participation despite having women as the country's heads of government for over two decades. 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 ministry of women and children and ministry of social welfare, labour and manpower. She was also the president of Women for Women International and a founding member of the Human Development Foundation.

Awards
Chowdhury received Ekushey Padak, Bangladesh's second highest civilian honour, for her outstanding contributions to research in 2008. She was also awarded the "Rokeya Chair" in 2007 by University Grants Commission.

Personal life
In 1961, Chowdhury married Mainur Reza Chowdhury, son of the former Finance Minister Murtaza Raza Choudhry of the Monakosha zamindar family. Chowdhury was a student of the English department in the University of Dhaka at that time. He later went on to become the Chief Justice of Bangladesh. He died in 2004. The couple had two daughters Lamiya Chowdhury and Bushra Hasina Chowdhury. The latter is a teacher with Dhaka University's International Relations department.

Chowdhury died on 8 August 2021, at a hospital in Dhaka from COVID-19. She was 79. She is buried at the Banani graveyard in Dhaka.