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Bangladesh

This place truly is constantly changing. Sitting on the largest river delta in the world, crouched beside the Bay of Bengal, this low-lying land sees its very soil renewed like clockwork each spring as the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers deliver -countless tons of mineral-rich silt. The world’s third largest Muslim nation, after Indonesia and Pakistan, Bangladesh is one of the most crowded places on the planet. It's also home to many spectacular river-swimming Bengal tigers. Over time, it has assimilated the beliefs of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Jainism, all of which may be seen in its cultural life today.

Posts tagged "feminist"

Famous Bengali: Nawab Faizunnesa Chowdhurani

Nawab Faizunnesa Chowdhurani was a prolific Muslim writer and a social welfare activist. She was a rich Zamindar and followed all the tenets of Islam. She received no formal education but she educated herself in her library during leisure time. She was proficient in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit and Bengali languages. She learned at a time when the superstitious belief existed that women would go to hell if they were given education but she was aware of the fact that a nation would never advance without modern education. She believed that a nation would prosper only if both men and women were educated so with her own funds she established eleven primary schools in her own Zamindari.

Nawab Faizunnesa Chowdhurani was born in 1834 in the village of Pashchimgaon under Laksham in the district of Comilla. She was born into a rich aristocratic Zamindari family and married to another neighbouring zamindar faily. However, the marriage did not last and she obtained a divorce from her husband. After her mother’s death in 1883, Faizunnesa inherited her property and became zamindar of Pashchimgaon.

Faizunnesa cultivated Bangla at a time when it was not normally practised by upper class Muslims. Rupjalal (1876), an autobiographical allegory which describes her troubled conjugal life, is written in prose and verse and has been acclaimed for its literary value. Another important work is Tattva 0 Jatiya, Sangeet - a book of Bengali poems that deals with religion and politics. Rupjalal depicts the social condition of Muslim society in the nineteenth century. She also wrote a number of other books: Sangitsar and Sangitlahari.

Faizunnesa was not only confined to the literary field but also to social welfare activities. Overcoming many difficulties she laid the foundations of the traditional Sanskrit school, JOLE. In her village she started a free Madarassa known as `Faizunnesa Government Degree College” and also a Middle English School in Comilla town. Faizunnesa performed hajj and is said to have founded a madrasah and an inn (musafirkhana) at Mecca, Saudi Arabia as well. She established a charitable hospital at Laksham and founded a hospital for women at Comilla. Her primary concern was the welfare of human beings irrespective of gender and faith. She donated funds for the digging of ponds and improvement of roads.

Before her death in 1903 she donated her entire property to the nation. In appreciation of her social work, in 1889 Queen Victoria awarded Faizunnesa the title of ‘Nawab’ making her the first woman in Bengal to receive this title.