Second death anniversary of Professor Sultana Zaman Monday
The second death anniversary of Professor Emeritus Sultana Sarawatara Zaman was observed on Monday (21 March).
From the late 1960s Professor Zaman was a pioneer in recognising the stigma associated with children with disabilities; and their educational, social and rehabilitation needs.
From 1967 she taught Developmental Psychology at Dhaka University and established the first Shishu Bikash Clinic at the Psychiatry Department of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
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In 1977, she founded of the Society of the Care and Education of Mentally Retarded Children (SCEMRC) which was later renamed Society for the Welfare of Children with Intellectual Disability (SWID), Bangladesh.
She founded the Bangladesh Protibondhi Foundation (BPF) and the Bangladesh Institute for Special Education in 1984.
In 1990, she transferred herself from the Department of Psychology to the Institute of Education and Research (IER, Dhaka University) to establish the first ever Department of Special Education in Bangladesh.
She was awarded a doctoral degree from Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA in 1984.
Professor Zaman's research tools which were developed for marginalised children within Bangladesh and across the globe are currently being widely utilized in several countries in South America, Asia and Africa.
Professor Sultana Zaman is also the founder of Samaj Unnayan Sangstha (Deepshikha School).
Among the many accolades and awards bestowed upon her, she received the Rokeya Padak in 2008. A freedom fighter during the 1971 War of Liberation, Professor Zaman established an orphanage (Khela Ghar) for abandoned children found in the refugee camps in Kalyani, West Bengal, India near the Jashore border.
She went on to establish an Advanced Dressing Station (ADS) for injured freedom fighters and civilians in Shona Masjid, Chapai Nawabganj which was a subsector within Sector 7 and was commanded by her husband, the Late Lt Col Quazi Nooruzzaman, Bir Uttam.
In 1972, she assisted many Biranganas in Rajshahi Division to find medical assistance and aftercare for their progenies.
On the occasion of her death anniversary prayers and memorial functions have been organised in the Inclusive Schools run by BPF; wreaths will be placed on her graveyard; and an effort to rename Bangladesh Institute for Special Education in her name to be initiated by the Board of Trustees of BPF.
