Muhammed Zafar Iqbal is a Bangladeshi science fiction author, physicist, academic, activist and former professor of computer science and engineering and former head of the department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST). He achieved his PhD from University of Washington. After working 18 years as a scientist at California Institute of Technology and Bell Communications Research, he returned to Bangladesh and joined Shahjalal University of Science and Technology as a professor of Computer Science and Engineering. He retired from his teaching profession in October 2018. He is considered one of Bangladesh's top science fiction writers.
Stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh are Urdu-speaking Muslim migrants with homelands in present-day Bihar who settled in East Pakistan following the partition of India in 1947.
The Swadhin Bangla Biplobi Parishad was an armed underground student political group secretly organized in 1961 by Serajul Alam Khan, a key founder of Bangladesh, that worked to wage an armed secessionist struggle against Pakistani rule and achieve the independence of East Pakistan as "Bangladesh".
The first president of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and most of his family were killed during the early hours of 15 August 1975 by a group of young Bangladesh Army personnel who invaded his Dhanmondi 32 residence as part of a coup d'état. Minister of Commerce Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad immediately took control of the government and proclaimed himself president. The assassination marked the first direct military intervention in Bangladesh's civilian administration-centric politics. According to Lawrence Lifscultz, the massacre was a violent outcome of the cold war conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States for establishing their respective dominance in Bangladesh. 15 August is National Mourning Day, an official national holiday in Bangladesh.
Rabeya Khatun was a Bangladeshi novelist. She wrote over 50 novels and more than 400 short stories. Her works include essays, novels, research, short stories, religious history and travelogues. She was awarded Bangla Academy Literary Award in 1973, Ekushey Padak in 1993 and Independence Day Award in 2017 by the Government of Bangladesh.
Tahmima Anam is a Bangladeshi-born British writer, novelist and columnist. Her first novel, A Golden Age (2007), was the Best First Book winner of the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prizes. Her follow-up novel, The Good Muslim, was nominated for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize. She is the granddaughter of Abul Mansur Ahmed and daughter of Mahfuz Anam.
Mahfuz Anam is a Bangladeshi journalist. He serves as editor and publisher of The Daily Star, one of Bangladesh's largest circulating English-language newspapers. After working in the United Nations for 14 years, Anam co-founded the newspaper with his mentor Syed Mohammad Ali in 1991 during Bangladesh's democratic transition. His criticism of the country's two largest political parties and the military has often resulted in him being sued in court; Anam dismisses the charges as attacks on press freedom. He was elected for a second term as chairman of the Asia News Network in 2022 and 2023.
There has been numerous works of art that depicted the Bangladesh Liberation War during and since the War both at Bangladesh and abroad. The concert for Bangladesh organized by members of the Beatles was a major happening in 1971 for protest music. The songs recorded for and broadcast on Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra are still considered to be the best of Bangladeshi protest songs.
The Good Muslim is a novel by Tahmima Anam. This novel is a sequel to her debut novel A Golden Age and spans the year from 1984 to 1985, with occasional flashbacks to the aftermath of the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. It is a story about faith and family shadowed by a war. The family that has taken active part in the war of independence has now to face the challenges of peace, within and outside.
Joy Bangla is a slogan and war cry used in Bangladesh to indicate nationalism towards the geopolitical, cultural and historical region of Bengal and Bangamata. It is also recognised as the national slogan of Bangladesh. It translates roughly to "Victory to Bengal" or "Hail Bengal".
The Black Coat is a fiction novel by Bangladeshi-Canadian author Neamat Imam. It is "a meditation on power, greed and the human cost of politics." The Sunday Guardian commented that it is "destined to be a future classic" and will be used as the "gold standard for any book which seeks to engage with South Asian politics or history."
Birangana is the title awarded by the Government of Bangladesh to women raped during the Bangladesh Liberation War by the Pakistan army and their local collaborators.
Bangladeshi English literature (BEL) refers to the body of literary work written in the English language in Bangladesh and the Bangladeshi diaspora. The historical background of interpolation of English in this region dates back to the British colonial period. English touched the land through the historical process—the historical process of British colonization over the land. However, the thought of creative writing in the colonizer's language inflames the idea that it is a deliberate choice by the native people who exploit—to emphasize more—the language in a way which exceeds the possibility of language to be used only as a communicative medium. Here the first question comes to the issue of taking up English as a medium of creative writing, in which Bankim and Michael Madhusudan underwent a deliberate trial to emerge as writers. The process of writing in English is ever-expanding and now uses a new term, "Bengali English Literature", rather than "Bangaladeshi English Literature". In academia, it is also now referred to as Bangladeshi Writing in English (BWE). Early prominent Bengali writers in English included Ram Muhan Roy, Sake Dean Mahomed, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Begum Rokeya and Rabindranath Tagore. In 1905, Begum Rokeya (1880–1932) wrote Sultana's Dream, one of the world's earliest examples of feminist science fiction. Modern writers of the Bangladeshi diaspora include Tahmima Anam, Neamat Imam, Monica Ali and Zia Haider Rahman.
Husne Ara Shahed was a Bangladeshi author and educationist.
Leesa Gazi is a Bangladeshi-born British writer, playwright, theatre director and actress based in London.
Birangona: Women of War is a British one-act play by Leesa Gazi about the untold true stories of female survivors and sufferers, Birangona, of the Bangladesh Liberation War, during which over 200,000 women were raped and tortured. The theatrical production is dedicated to narrating the stories of war heroines from their perspective.
Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib, also known by her daak naam Renu, was the wife of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the first President of Bangladesh. She is the mother of Sheikh Hasina, who now leads Bangladesh. She was assassinated with her husband and three sons.
Feminism in Bangladesh seeks equal rights of women in Bangladesh through social and political change. Article 28 of Bangladesh constitution states that "Women shall have equal rights with men in all spheres of the State and of public life".
The Bones of Grace is a novel by Tahmima Anam. It is the third novel and final part of her Bengal trilogy, following A Golden Age and The Good Muslim.
Azmeri Haque Badhon, popularly known as Badhon, is a Bangladeshi actress who became the 2nd runners-up at the Lux Channel I Superstar in 2006. Later, she made her film debut with a film called Nijhum Oronney in 2010 along with Ilias Kanchan and Champa. She has appeared in a number of TV dramas as well. She gained huge praise from national and international media for her deeply affecting central performance at Rehana Maryam Noor, the first officially selected Bangladeshi film in the “Un Certain Regard” section of the 74th Cannes Film Festival. She wins in the 14th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) in "Best Actress" category for this film. She also won the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival award in the New Talent category for the same film.
