Professor Mahfuza Khanam has been elected president of the Council of Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (ASB) while Dr Sabbir Ahmed its general secretary for 2020-21 period.

They were elected in the election to the ASB Council held on January 28, said a press release.

The panel, headed by Professor Mahfuza Khanam, secured 14 posts out of 17.

The other office-bearers of the council are: Vice-presidents - Ahmed Abdullah Jamal, Mesbah-us-Saleheen and Khanoaker Bazlul Hoque, Treasurer -S.M. Mahfuzur Rahman and Secretary -Md Abdul Karim.

New council members are Mohammad Siddiqur Rahman Khan, Harun-or-Rashid, Najma Khan Majlish, Syed Anwar Hussain, Muhammad Abdul Mazid, Eshani Chakraborty, Biswajit Ghosh, Yearul Kabir, Nusrat Fatema and Suraiya Akhter.

Brief profile of Professor Mahfuza Khanam

Professor Mahfuza Khanam is a name well known in the academic, cultural, social and political arena in Bangladesh. She was the first woman leader in the Dhaka University Central Students Union (DUCSU). She has been in the vanguard of any progressive movements and fighting for the amelioration of the life of the womenfolk in the country.

Professor Mahfuza Khanam was born in 1946 in Dhaka and obtained her Master's in Physics from the University of Dhaka in 1967 in first class.

Professor Mahfuza Khanam was a well-known student leader in the progressive wing in the '60s. She was elected Vice President of the Dhaka University Central Students Union in 1966-67. She took active part in the movement against the Hamidur Rahman Education Commission and in the Six Points Movement launched by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibar Rahman to realize autonomy for the then East Pakistan. Most of the Awami league activists were at that time in jail and the task of leading the six points movement in the Dhaka University campus devolved upon the DUCSU V.P. Mahfuza Khanam. As the V.P. of the Dhaka University Central Students Union she evinced keen sense of leadership and prudence in leading the students of the country to a greater movement for realizing the demands of the people of then East Pakistan.

Professor Mahfuza Khanam has made valuable contributions in the intellectual and academic arena. She was elected Senate Member of the Dhaka University by the vote of its registered graduates on 29 September 2013. She also served in the Dhaka University as an elected senate member for consecutive three terms. As the general secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (2008-2009, 2010-2011) a premier learned body in the country, she has made immense contribution to the Society. She got the Service Rule of the Society passed by the Council and took personal interest in setting up a Welfare Fund for the employees of the Society.

Professor Mahfuza Khanam is married to Barrister Shafique Ahmed, a prominent lawyer and jurist and former Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh.