Bangladesh gets first woman Speaker

Chaudhury, the State Minister for Women and Children Affairs, will succeed Abdul Hamid who last week became President following the death of President Md Zillur Rahman. State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury has been elected the youngest and first woman Speaker of Bangladesh.Deputy Speaker Shawkat Ali put the resolution to voice vote during Tuesday’s parliamentary session and Chaudhury was supported unanimously. In an unprecedented move, the ruling Awami League on Monday night nominated her for the post.

Women are now occupying several top posts with the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition, Deputy Leader of Parliament are women.

A lawyer by profession, Chaudhury entered Parliament for the first time as an MP from one of the reserved seats for women. She holds a PhD from Essex University in the United Kingdom.

Chaudhury’s appointment is the first of its kind from an MP elected from one of reserved seats for women to the top parliamentary post.

Now she has to relinquish her ministerial position.

The Speaker’s office in Parliament had been lying vacant since former Speaker Abdul Hamid was sworn-in as President on Apr 24.

Deputy Speaker Ali became the acting Speaker when the Speaker was made the Acting President on Mar 14.

Chaudhury, with an outstanding academic career, was born in Dhaka on October 6, 1966. Her father Rafiqullah Chaudhury was the Personal Secretary of independence leader and former Prime Minister Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Her mother Professor Naiyer Sultana was a Member of Public Service Commission and her grandfather was a judge at then East Pakistan High Court.

She passed her SSC with Humanities from the Dhaka Education Board topping the merit list in 1983 and completed HSC from the same board in 1985 securing second position in the integrated merit list of all groups.

In 1989, she came out first class first in her LLB (Honours) examination from the Dhaka University and passed LLM with distinction from the same university in 1990.

On a Commonwealth Scholarship, she did her PhD on human rights and constitutional laws – ‘Right to Life’ – from Essex University in the United Kingdom in 2000.

She enrolled at the Bar Council in 1992 as a lawyer and two years later with the High Court. In 2008, she was enrolled with the Appellate Division.

The International Affairs Secretary of the Awami League, she was elected MP from one of the parliamentary seats reserved for women on March 24, 2009.

During the army-backed caretaker government in 2007-08, she was one of the members of the lawyers’ panel which conducted the cases filed against Hasina.

Chaudhury became a member of the Bangladesh Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and Dhaka Bar Association in 2000 and was elected Editor of Bangladesh Bar Council Legal Division in 2003. She became a member of Bangladesh Nari Samaj (Women's Coalition) in 2007.

The ‘Women Development Policy’ was passed in Parliament during her term as a State Minister.

In 2008, she became a member of the sub-committee of Bangladesh Bar Council Legal Education and a member of the executive committee of Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs.

In 2009, she was elected as a syndicate member of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Medical University (BSMMU).

She has a son and a daughter with Syed Ishtiaque Hossain who is a pharmaceutical consultant.