Bibi, Taibun get Rokeya Padak

Prominent fashion designer Bibi Rasel and late educationalist Dr Taibun Nahar get Begum Rokeya Padak for their outstanding performance in respective position.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina handed over the award to them at Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the capital on Wednesday.

Ali Asgar Khurshid, son of late Dr Taibun Nahar, first received the award on behalf of his mother. Then the premier adorned the medal to the neck of Bibi Rasel.

Each of them received gold crests, citations and a Tk 100,000 cheque each.

The government gives the award every year to individuals for their outstanding contributions to the spread of female education, ensuring their rights and immense work for the socio-economic development of rural women.

Bibi Russell was chosen for her contribution in the progress of the handloom industry and socio-economic development of the weavers.

Freedom fighter Taibun Nahar, who was awarded posthumously, was born in Dhaka in 1919. The educationalist had faced the then Pakistan government’s wrath for writing poems in Bengali in 1952 during the Language Movement.

Wednesday’s awards ceremony was held as part of the ‘Begum Rokeya Day’ programmes annually organized to mark both birth and death of Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, the writer and pioneer of women`s rights in the subcontinent.