Honouring the influential role of Bangladeshi women in the society, the Turkish Embassy in Dhaka, in partnership with Bangladesh-Turkey Business Platform, organized an exceptional event at the Garden of the Turkish Residence, Baridhara on the International Women’s Day.
The event showcased a unique combination of an engaging conversation session, live music, dance and an art exhibition jointly organized with the Gallery Cosmos and participated by seven leading Bangladeshi artists: Farida Zaman, Kanak Chanpa Chakma, Afrozaa Jamil Konka, Maqsuda Iqbal Nipa, Nazia Andaleeb Preema, Bishwajit Goswami and Sourav Chowdhury.
The conversation session was facilitated by Dhaka Lit Fest director Sadaf Saaz, combined with a mesmerizing acoustic musical session by popular singer-musician and activist Farzana Wahid Shayan, a poetry recitation session by eminent actress-choreographer Naila Azad in which she recited two poems penned by two Turkish poets, complemented with a dance recital by Umma Habiba and Yasin Arafat.
A number of prolific personalities including the newly appointed vice-chancellor of the Asian University for Women (AUW) in Chattogram Dr Rubana Huq, social activist Khushi Kabir, the first Bangladeshi film screened in the 'Un Certain Regard' section of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival ‘Rehana Maryam Noor’ - famed actress Azmeri Haque Badhan, and many other prominent personalities participated in the conversation, sharing their journeys while simultaneously shedding the spotlight on several important socio-economic issues.
Talking about the event, Turkish Ambassador to Bangladesh Mustafa Osman Turan described the motif and the overall programme, marking the special occasion of International Women's Day 2022.
"We are organising this International Women's Day event at our Turkish Embassy as a part of our series of cultural events, which we call our year-long 'Cultural Encounters'. So we started last December with the 'Sufi Encounters,' which was a big success because we tried to highlight our shared value of Sufism. We started here in the embassy, then we went to Sylhet, then Chittagong and then Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, so our artists who came from Turkey, collaborated with local artists."
"This time, we are celebrating International Women's Day; however, it is not the first time we are celebrating this event here at the Embassy. Two years ago when I first came, we also organised something similar and a cultural programme.”
“This is our second time organizing the event, and our mission is to highlight the important roles our women are playing in our society, in both Turkey and Bangladesh. There are prominent women in Bangladesh like the honourable Prime Minister, honourable Speaker of the National Parliament and many prolific women leaders in both government and the private sectors, artists, entrepreneurs and more. We wanted to celebrate their successes, and also to highlight some of the role models that we have in our countries," Turan described the initiative to UNB.
He further said, “We are doing this in partnership with the Bangladesh-Turkey Business Platform which we have established recently. There are nine Bangladeshi companies on our platform and six Turkish companies, and some of them are also present in this event like the Square group, Singer, Mohammadi Group, Deepto TV, Cosmos Group through the Gallery Cosmos and more. We are grateful for their support, and we will continue to organize similar events in the future to bring our countries closer."
Speaking on the partnership with Cosmos Group, the Ambassador said, "Cosmos Group is one of our nine partners in Bangladesh that are participating in our joint Bangladesh-Turkey business platform, and our message is that there are ample opportunities for trade and investments between Turkey and Bangladesh, and the more we know each other through this kind of cultural events and people-to-people contacts, the more business will flourish between our countries because that will help us understand what we can do together, on the basis of our shared history."
Expressing his admiration over the artworks and the artists participating in the exhibition, Turan said, "I am very impressed by the artworks being showcased in tonight's event. I have met some of the artists before in some exhibitions and art events in the past, and recently in the Garden Gallery of Gallery Cosmos in Baridhara, I saw some of their impressive artworks. So we brought some of the artists to celebrate their arts on the theme of International Women's Day."
"We wanted to bring some of our Turkish artists to join us this evening; unfortunately that was not possible due to the pandemic. We could not bring the Turkish artist this year, but InshAllah for our next events they will come and we are hopeful to facilitate further collaborations in our culture, academia and businesses between Turkish and Bangladeshi women," Ambassador Turan told UNB.
Regarding the exhibition, eminent artist Kanak Chanpa Chakma said, "Through celebrating the International Women's Day, I believe the much-needed awareness is getting spread regarding women rights and the prevention of violence on our women, among the society and our citizens. Women from different professional sectors or academic areas can get interconnected and ensure the exchanging of great ideas at these types of events, so for that reason, I truly believe that the Turkish Embassy has set a praiseworthy example tonight."
Artist and Gallery Cosmos Executive Artistic Manager Sourav Chowdhury said, “Gallery Cosmos has always organized noteworthy events on different occasions including the International Women’s Day, and this year we felt honoured as the Turkish Embassy stepped forward and collaborated with us to host this excellent event. The role of women in our lives is beyond explanation and without the guidance and assistance of our women in almost every stage of our lives, we cannot have our existence; so I feel extremely honoured to be in this celebratory event of our esteemed women changemakers in the society.”
This was the second time the Turkish Embassy in Dhaka celebrated International Women’s Day in Bangladesh. The first was organized in 2020 when Turan first took over as the ambassador. -UNB
