Nasreen Huq
| Nasreen Huq | |
|---|---|
Photograph of subject of biography
|
|
| Born |
18 November 1958 Bangladesh |
| Died | 24 April 2006 (aged 47) Bangladesh |
| Nationality | Bangladeshi |
| Alma mater | State University of New York at Purchase, University of California, Berkeley |
| Occupation | Director of action aid |
Nasreen Pervin Huq (born Bangladesh, 18 November 1958, died Bangladesh, 24 April 2006) was a prominent women's activist and campaigner for women's rights and social justice. She died in an accident at her home in Dhaka, when she was crushed by a vehicle. The vehicle was driven by her chauffeur, who was picking her up to go to work as Director of the UK non-governmental organisation Action Aid. Though her death was ruled accidental, some think the driver was paid off by a foreign figure.
Nasreen Huq was born into a prominent Bangladeshi family; her father, Rafiqul Huq, was an engineer and her mother, Jaheda Khanum, a poet and translator of poetry. Her early education was at a Catholic Missionary School in Bangladesh (Holy Cross Girls' School and College). Her parents then sent her as a teenager to The Hockaday School, a private girls school in Dallas, Texas.
After graduating with a bachelor's degree in biology from the State University of New York at Purchase, Nasreen Huq turned to nutrition and studied for a master's degree at the University of California, Berkeley. One of her teachers there described her as "a woman with unlimited energy, enthusiasm, and idealism." After completing her studies she decided, unlike many other expatriate Bangladeshis, not to settle in the USA but to return home, because she felt that she could contribute to national development. Later on, she adopted a Bangladeshi child who lives with her family now.
On her return to Dhaka in 1988 Nasreen Huq was recruited by the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee. Now known by its acronym, BRAC is one of the largest non-governmental agencies in the world with a mission to alleviate poverty and empower the poor. Nasreen Huq joined the Research and Evaluation Division of BRAC and started her working life supporting BRAC's health and nutrition programmes. In 1992 she was recruited by the US agency Helen Keller International as Policy Advisor and contributed to both a national nutritional surveillance project and to an innovative homestead gardening programme. In 2002 she left HKI to take up the post of Country Director of Action Aid in Bangladesh, a job for which she was ideally suited, as the agency has programmes in health, development and social justice.
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