UNB, Dhaka

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday urged the women to learn from the life of Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatunnesa who set extraordinary instances and examples of firmness, intelligence, and farsightedness.

Sheikh Fazilatunnesa, wife of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and mother of the prime minister, was gunned down in the gruesome massacre August 15 in 1975.

The mayhem wiped out Bangabandhu, the father of the nation, and most members of his family.

Paying tribute to Bangamata, Hasina said she was “a person who sacrificed everything for the independence of a nation and its people”.

“I never saw her breaking down in any crisis,” she said.

Hasina said this while delivering her speech at an international conference titled “Bangamata: a paragon of women’s leadership and nation-building in Bangladesh”

Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Centre for Gender and Development Studies of Dhaka University organised the seminar at the Senate Bhaban Auditorium of the university.

The prime minister joined the programme virtually from the Gono Bhaban.

She said that all the decisions Bangamata had taken in family and politics proved to be very much appropriate for the family and the country.

Recalling the August 15 bloodshed, Hasina said, the killers all used to come to their residence (on Road 32 Dhanmondi) very regularly.