The 109th birth anniversary of poet Begum Sufia Kamal is being observed on Saturday.
Born on June 20, 1911, Sufia Kamal was a pioneer in the movement for women emancipation. She was instrumental in naming the first women's dormitory of Dhaka University as Ruqayyah Hall, reports UNB.
During the 1971 Liberation War, she helped injured women and campaigned for bringing Pakistani war criminals to justice.
She was awarded the Bangla Academy Award for Literature (1962), Lenin Centenary Jubilee Medal (1970) from the Soviet Union, Ekushey Padak (1976), Czechoslovakia Medal (1986), Jatiya Kabita Parishad Award (1995), Begum Rokeya Medal (1996), Deshbandhu CR Das Gold Medal (1996) and Independence Award (1997) for her works.
Sufia Kamal died on November 20 in 1999.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina issued a message on the eve of her 109th birthday.
In the message, Hasina paid profound respect to memories of the poet saying, on the one hand, Sufia Kamal was a portrait of a traditional Bengali woman and on the other, she played an uncompromising and strong role in every movement in Bangladesh.
The thoughts of Begum Rokeya, the pioneer of woman renaissance, had a longstanding impact on her life. Dhaka University’s first female dormitory was named after Begum Rokeya as per the demand of Sufia Kamal, she said.
Later, the university also named another female dormitory after Sufia Kamal, which Hasina had inaugurated in November 2012.
