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BIRTH ANNIVERSARY

Noorjehan Murshid: A path breaker

Tazeen Murshid and Sharmeen Murshid
Born on May 22, 1925, as Noor Jehan Beg into a tradition of Bengal Renaissance, Noorjehan Murshid was deeply liberal and secular in her worldview. With an enlightened and progressive family and academic background, Noorjehan rose to become a distinguished social and political figure, a beacon of light in a society that was conservative and ridden with prejudice. She left her mark as an educationist, social reformer, media personality and writer, and became the very embodiment of a woman 'empowered.'
Fourth of the seven daughters of Ayub Hussain Beg and Bibi Khatimunnessa, ofTaranagar, Murshidabad, Noorjehan received her early schooling at home. She then studied at the school section of Broja Mohan College, Barisal for two years and went on to finish her secondary education with a first division at Victoria Institution, Calcutta. She studied History and Politics at the same institution for her undergraduate degree and thereafter obtained her Master's degree in Islamic History from Calcutta University. She started working as a broadcaster for the All India Radio (AIR) while she was still a student. Notably, she was the first Muslim woman to work for AIR.
During her academic years, she was influenced by the Swadeshi Movement, the Quit India Movement. She was deeply moved by Gandhi's fast unto death, aimed to stop the Great Calcutta Killings of 1946.
The Partition of the sub-continent into India and Pakistan in 1947 forced her to abandon her family home in Murshidabad and work in Calcutta to move to Dhaka in East Bengal. Within a year, Noorjehan met and married Khan Sarwar Murshid, a young lecturer of the Department of English at Dhaka University.
In East Pakistan, Noorjehan worked for Radio Pakistan and became a programme producer, again the first woman to be so in Pakistan. She obtained a teaching qualification from the Institute of Education, Dhaka University and, at a very young age, became the Principal of Syedunnesa Girls' High School at Barisal. She later taught at various institutions in Dhaka such as Quamrunnessa School, Viquarunnisa Noon School, and Holy Cross College.
With her penchant for and involvement in politics, she was one of the two women to be directly elected to the Provincial Legislative Assembly of East Bengal in 1954 on a United Front ticket. She moved on to organise the women's wing of the Awami League. In the first ever national parliamentary elections of Pakistan in 1970, she won a resounding victory from her constituency in Dhaka.
Following the Pakistani armed crackdown on the Bengalis in East
Pakistan on March 25,1971, to suppress their aspirations for autonomy, Noorjehan was forced to flee with her family, taking refuge in India. As an accredited deputy of the Mujibnagar government in exile, and a roaming ambassador, she worked for recognition and support of our Liberation War and travelled and met with government dignitaries, including presidents and prime Ministers. She addressed a joint session of the both houses of the Indian Parliament in 1971 and sought recognition for Bangladesh from the Indian government, essentially to raise support for the War of Liberation.
In independent Bangladesh in 1972, she was appointed the first woman minister (of state) for health and social welfare in the cabinet of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. She was elected to the country's first parliament in 1973. She gradually withdrew from politics and joined civil society initiatives (which later became Gono Forum) to strengthen democracy, encourage accountability, and campaign against violence in society.
No wonder that she brought out in 1985 the first 'gender' periodical, Edesh Ekal, providing serious analysis for gender equality, and became its editor. The journal folded in 1991 due to financial and other constraints.
She was the first Bengali Muslim woman to act on stage in East Pakistan, as early as in 1949, when women could venture out of their home only in rickshaws with 'purdah' (covered by a curtain of cloth so that she is not visible)! Noor broke a taboo that had stunted women's creativity amongst Muslims for centuries.
Noor left her mark in social work too. She was the first President of the Bangladesh Mahila Samity, the founder President of Azimpur Ladies Club, the founder of Agrani Balika Bidyalay, a founder member of Birdem Diabetic Clinic a sponsor of Ain-o-Shalish Kendra and Brotee at its infancy.
The much loved Noor passed away on September 1, 2003 in Dhaka of natural causes.
The writers are daughters of Noorjehan Murshid.