Dipu Moni

Dipu Moni
দীপু মনি
Foreign Minister of Bangladesh
In office 6 January 2009 – 20 November 2013
President	Iajuddin Ahmed Zillur Rahman Abdul Hamid
Prime Minister	Sheikh Hasina
Preceded by	Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury
Succeeded by	Abul Hassan Mahmud Ali
Personal details
Political party	Bangladesh Awami League
Alma mater	Holy Cross College, Dhaka Dhaka Medical College University of London Johns Hopkins University
Religion	Islam

Dipu Moni is a Bangladeshi politician who served as Foreign Minister of Bangladesh from 2009 to 2013. She was appointed the first female Foreign Minister on 6 January 2009 after a landslide victory for the Awami League-led Grand Alliance on 29 December 2008.^[1]

Early life

Moni is a daughter of M.A. Wadud, who was a founding member of the Bangladesh Awami League. Dipu Moni passed HSC from Holy Cross College, Dhaka. She studied MBBS at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital and LLB at Bangladesh National University. She later studied at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health,^[2] and at the University of London.^[3]

Political career

Dipu Moni with Hillary Clinton

John Kerry meets with Dipu Moni

Moni was the Secretary for Women’s Affairs and a Member of the Sub‐Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Bangladesh Awami League before her induction to the cabinet. She represented Chandpur‐3 as a Member of Bangladesh Parliament. She worked for women's rights and entitlements, health legislation, health policy and management, health financing, strategic planning, and health and human rights under the Constitution and law in Bangladesh's economic and social development programmes and foreign policy issues of the region and globally.As a Minister of Foreign Affairs she has represented her government's position to the Cabinet Ministers and public representatives of Asia, Europe and the USA, Ambassadors and Senior Representatives of International Institutions. As the foreign minister she sought an apology for the 1971 Bangladesh Genocide from Pakistan.^[4] She also tried to bring the absconding killers of president Sheikh Mujib.^[5] She is the present Awami League Joint General Secretary.^[6] She was elected chairman of Asian University for Women in 2016.^[7] She is the chairperson of the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs.^[8]

Criticisms

As Minister of Foreign Affairs Moni was widely criticized by different news media because of her frequent overseas visits. According to some news reports, she made 187 foreign trips and 600 days of overseas stay in four and a half years.^[9][10][11] In response, Moni said she went abroad every time with the consent of the prime minister, who gave her approval after studying the pros and cons of every visit. She made 114 foreign tours, including 36 with the president and the prime minister and claimed that the number of her bilateral visits was 62, not 17 as reported.^[11]

Personal life

She is married to Tawfique Nawaz.^[12] She is mother of one son and one daughter.

See also

• Bangladesh Awami League

References

1. "Dipu Moni new chairperson of AUW". The Daily Star. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
2. Smith, Mike. "Public Health Travels in South Asia - Departments - Johns Hopkins Public Health Magazine". magazine.jhsph.edu. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
3. "Dipu Moni". The Opinion Pages. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
4. "Dipu Moni seeks Pak apology for 1971, Khar prefers moving on - Firstpost". Firstpost. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
5. "One killer safe in US with political asylum". The Daily Star. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
6. "Dipu Moni: BNP has restored to falsehood". The Financial Express Online Version. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
7. "Dipu Moni elected AUW chairman". Prothom Alo. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
8. "Bangladesh crucial to India's Northeast: Dipu Moni". bdnews24.com. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
9. Dipu Moni slammed over foreign trips - Click Ittefaq | Click Ittefaq
10. Dipu Moni’s foreign trips galore
11. Foreign Trips | Dipu Moni blasts media reports
12. "HC summons Dipu Moni’s husband". The Daily Star. Retrieved 2016-04-12.

External links

• Awami League official website