Dipu Moni

Dr. Dipu Moni (born 8 December 1965)[1] is a Bangladeshi politician, and since 2019 has been the Minister of Education of Bangladesh since January 2019.[2] She was Foreign Minister of Bangladesh from 2009 to 2013. She was appointed the first female Foreign Minister on 6 January 2009 after victory for the Awami League-led Grand Alliance on 29 December 2008.[3]

Honorable Minister

Dipu Moni
দীপু মনি
Dr. Dipu Moni in 2013
Minister of Education
Assumed office
7 January 2019
PresidentAbdul Hamid
Prime MinisterSheikh Hasina
Preceded byNurul Islam Nahid
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office
30 January 2009 – 20 November 2013
President
Prime MinisterSheikh Hasina
Preceded byIftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury
Succeeded byAbul Hassan Mahmud Ali
Personal details
Born (1965-12-08) 8 December 1965
Political partyBangladesh Awami League
Spouse(s)Tawfique Nawaz
ChildrenTawquir Rashaad Nawaz (Son)
Tani Deepavali Nawaz (Daughter)
ParentsMA Wadud (Father)
Rahima Wadud (Mother)
Alma mater
ProfessionPolitician, Doctor, Lawyer

Early life

Moni is a daughter of MA Wadud who was a founding member of the Bangladesh Awami League and known especially for his role in the Language Movement and as the first Council-elected General Secretary of the East Pakistan Chhatra League. Moni passed HSC from Holy Cross College, Dhaka.

Moni studied MBBS at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital and LLB at Bangladesh National University. She later earned Master of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, and earned Master of Laws at the University of London as an external student.[4][5] She had completed a course on Negotiations and Conflict Resolutions from Harvard University. She is a lawyer of Bangladesh Supreme Court.

Political career
Moni with Hillary Clinton
John Kerry meets with Moni

Dr. Dipu 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 US, Ambassadors and Senior Representatives of International Institutions. As the foreign minister she sought an apology for the 1971 Bangladesh Genocide from Pakistan.[6] She also tried to bring the absconding killers of president Sheikh Mujib.[7] She is the present Awami League Joint General Secretary.[8] She was elected chairman of Asian University for Women in 2016.[9] She is the chairperson of the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs.[10]

Criticisms

As the 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.[11][12][13] 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.[13]

Personal life

Moni is married to Tawfique Nawaz,[14] an Oxbridge educated senior advocate of the Bangladesh Supreme Court. They have one son, Tawquir Rashaad Nawaz and a daughter, Tani Deepavali Nawaz.

References
  1. "Constituency 262_10th_Bn". Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  2. "New faces crowd cabinet of 47 members". Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  3. "Dipu Moni new chairperson of AUW". The Daily Star. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  4. Smith, Mike. "Public Health Travels in South Asia - Departments - Johns Hopkins Public Health Magazine". magazine.jhsph.edu. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  5. "Dipu Moni". The Opinion Pages. bdnews24.com. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  6. "Dipu Moni seeks Pak apology for 1971, Khar prefers moving on". Firstpost. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  7. "One killer safe in US with political asylum". The Daily Star. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  8. "Dipu Moni: BNP has restored to falsehood". The Financial Express. Dhaka. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  9. "Dipu Moni elected AUW chairman". Prothom Alo. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  10. "Bangladesh crucial to India's Northeast: Dipu Moni". bdnews24.com. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  11. "Dipu Moni slammed over foreign trips". Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  12. Dipu Moni's foreign trips galore
  13. "Dipu Moni blasts media reports". The Daily Star. 22 July 2013. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  14. "HC summons Dipu Moni's husband". The Daily Star. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
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