Tajuddin, Syeda Zohra
Tajuddin, Syeda Zohra (1932-2013) politician, women leader, social worker, activist of the struggle for Bangladesh’s independence and wife of the first Prime Minister of Bangladesh government, tajuddin ahmad.
Zohra Tajuddin was born on 24 December 1932 in Dhaka city. Her father’s name was Syed Serajul Huq and her mother was Syeda Fatema Khatun. Serajul Huq was Professor of Arabic in Dhaka College, while Fatema Khatun was housewife.
Syeda Zohra Tajuddin had her schooling and college education in Dhaka. She passed BA (Honours) in Sociology from Dhaka University. She also obtained diploma in Homeopathy and rendered services to people voluntarily. Playing guitar was her hobby. In 1959, Syeda Zohra Tajuddin was married to Tajuddin Ahmad, the Prime Minister of the first Bangladesh government, popularly known as mujibnagar government, formed during the war of liberatioin.
Syeda Zohra Tajuddin played a role in the movement against General Ayub Khan’s autocratic rule in the 1960s. In 1966, bangabandhu sheikh mujibur rahman presented his historic six-point programme as ‘charter of emancipation’ of the Bengalis. Bangabandhu, Tajuddin and many more leaders and party workers were imprisoned by the Ayub government, dubbing the six-point as ‘secessionist’. Zohra Tajuddin was the co-convenor of the committee constituted subsequently in aid of the political prisoners.
In the end of May 1971, risking her life, Zohra Tajuddin crossed the border and went to India along with her little children after an arduous journey. They first went to Agartala in Tripura. From there they journeyed to Calcutta by a cargo plane to join Tajuddin there. During her stay over there, Zohra extended all kinds of inspiration to Tajuddin Ahmad to conduct the War of Liberation. In the aftermath of independence, she engaged herself in the task of rehabilitation of women. She held the responsibility of Vice-President of Mahila Parishad [women association] for quite a long time.
On 15 August 1975, the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu was brutally assassinated along with all family members present. In the same year on 3 November, Tajuddin Ahmad along with three other national leaders, who provided successful leadership to the War of Liberation in the absence of Bangabandhu (he was then in Pakistani custody in jail), were the victims of gruesome killing while in prison in the Dhaka central jail. As a result, Awami League, the party which spearheaded the War of Liberation, became completely bereft of top leaderships fraught with severe persecutions including jails befallen on party rank and file at the behest of usurpers of power.
At such a crucial moment, Zohra Tajuddin came forward playing a most vital role in reorganizing the party together with igniting the morale of the party leaders and workers. She was emboldened to inaugurate the council meeting of the Awami League held on 3-4 April 1977 in Eden Hotel, Dhaka, being the first council after the assassination of Bangabandhu. She was elected Convenor of 44-member organizing committee in the council. Thereafter she went on whirlwind campaign in different places of the country in order to reorganize the party. In the 1978 council of the party, she was elected the senior Vice-President and in 1981, a member of the party presidium, the position she retained unto death.
On 13 December 2013, Syeda Zohra Tajuddin passed away at the age of 81. She was buried in Banani graveyard in Dhaka. The Tajuddin couple left behind 3 daughters and 1 son. Their second daughter Simeen Hussain Rimi is now an MP and Chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Cultural Affairs. Their only son Tanzim Ahmad Sohel was a former MP and Minister of State for Home Affairs. [Harun-or-Rashid]
Source Professor Mamtaj Begum and Mafia Begum, Swadhinata Juddey Banglar Nari (in Bengali) [Bengali Women in the War of Liberation], (Hakkani Publishers 2018); Sharmin Ahmad, Tajuddin: Neta o Pita (in Bengali) [Tajuddin: The Leader and Father], (Oitijjhya 2014); Harun-or-Rashid, Muldharar Rajniti [mainstream politics]: Bangladesh Awami League Council 1949-2016, (Bangla Academy 2016)
