Salma Khan passes away

Former chair-person of the UN Com-mittee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), economist and women's rights activist Salma Khan passed away at the age of 80.

She fell ill at her Gulshan residence in Dhaka on Saturday and was taken to United Hospital where doctors declared her dead, said her husband, former minister Habib Ullah Khan.

Her body has been kept in the hospital's cold storage. Family members will decide about her burial after her US expatriate daughter Umana Haque returns to the country.

Rights body Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF) expressed deep condolences over her death.

"The country lost a shining star with the death of Salma Khan. On one hand, she was a successful and responsible activist, on the other hand, she was a fighter for realising women's rights… Her death created a huge void in the women's rights movement," said Shaheen Anam, executive director of MJF, in a statement issued yesterday.

Salma Khan is the founder Chairperson of NGO Coalition on Beijing Process (NCBP), a network of 624 NGOs working towards implementation of Beijing Platform for Action. She was elected a member of the CEDAW in 1992 and served three terms in the CEDAW Committee (2003-2006).

She was the first Asian to be elected the chairperson of CEDAW (1997 & 1998).

She obtained her Bachelor and Master Degrees in Economics from Dhaka University and a post-graduate degree in Development Economics from the University of Chicago, USA as a Fulbright scholar.