Sufia Ahmed

Sufia Ahmed (née Ibrahim; 20 November 1932 – 9 April 2020)^[1][2] was a Bangladeshi academic. She was selected as the first female National Professor of Bangladesh in January 1995. She was awarded Ekushey Padak in 2002 by the Government of Bangladesh.^[3]

Sufia Ahmed
সুফিয়া আহমেদ
Born	(1932-11-20)20 November 1932 Faridpur District, Bengal Presidency, British India
Died	9 April 2020(2020-04-09) (aged 87) Dhaka, Bangladesh
Nationality	Bangladeshi
Education	Ph.D.
Alma mater	Brojomohun College University of Dhaka
Occupation	Academic
Spouse	Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed ​ ​ (m. 1955; died 2003)​
Children	Syed Refaat Ahmed Tasneem Raina Fateh
Father	Muhammad Ibrahim
Awards	Ekushey Padak

Career

Ahmed was born in the Faridpur District to M Ibrahim, a justice and former vice-chancellor of the University of Dhaka and Lutfunnessa Ibrahim.^[3][4] She studied at Dow Hill Girls' School in Darjeeling, but after the Partition of Bengal in 1947, the family moved to Barisal.^[5] Ahmed was a student at Brojomohun College in Barisal. In 1950, she got admitted to the University of Dhaka (DU). She was one of the female forerunners to break section 144 and deny the curfew in DU Campus on February 21, 1952.^[6] She earned her Ph.D. degree in 1960 in London.^[3]

Ahmed joined as a faculty member at the Department of Islamic History and Culture of the University of Dhaka in 1961.^[3] She was a visiting professor of Boğaziçi University in Istanbul and Alverno College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.^[3]

Ahmed served as a member of board of the directors of Bangladesh Bank.^[7] She was the president of Bangladesh Itihas Parishad.^[8]

Personal life

Ahmed married Barrister Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed in June 1955. Together they had a son, Syed Refaat Ahmed, 25th Chief Justice of Bangladesh^[9] and a daughter, Raina Ahmed, a physician.^[10]

On July 18, 2004, Sufia Ahmed established a trust fund titled "Barrister Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed Memorial Foundation" at the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.^[11]

Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed and Tasneem Raina Fateh, the two children of Sufia Ahmed, established a trust fund titled "National Professor Dr. Sufia Ahmed Memorial Foundation" on November 20, 2020 at the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.^[12]

Awards

• Sufia Kamal Award (2015)^[13]
• Ekushey Padak (2002)^{[citation needed]}