Hasna Hena Qadir

1937 - 1999

Mrs. Hasna Hena Qadir was the wife of Lieutenant Colonel Muhammad Abdul Qadir, who was martyred during Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war.

Hena Qadir was an educated and enlightened woman who was one of the founders of the Ekkaturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee, Bangladesh main group fighting against Muslim extremism, communalism and those who collaborated with the Pakistani army in 1971.  Jahanara Imam, who led the group, was Hena Qadir's childhood friend and thus she joined Jahanara Imam.

She won awards for flower arrangement in the Japanese Ikebana style, an amateur painter and also dancer.

Hena was both a mother and father to her three children for 29 years. She passed away aged 62 in 1999 of respiratory complications.

The then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina condoled her death, saying Hena Qadir “ contributed greatly in the field of social progress by joining the anti-fundamentalist and anti-communal campaign. Her death was a loss to this country.”

The current Prime Minister Khaleda Zia said she was shocked at her death and prayed for the peace of her departed soul.

The then army chief General M. Mustafizur Rahman, Bir Bikram, wrote to her son “your mother was a bright star in our national life with an unusual personality.”

Her elder son, with the money he inherited from Hena Qadir, introduced an annual award for best report on the Independence War for members of the Dhaka Reporters Unity, an organization representing Dhaka-based journalists.

The award is worth taka 10,000 and includes a crest as well as a certificate.

Courtesy: Nadeem Qadir