UPL book launched

The University Press Limited (UPL) yesterday launched Ms Raana Haider's 'Parisian Portraits and a Perspective in Development: Gender Focus' at a function on the Alliance Francaise premises at Dhanmondi here, reports BSS.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Abul Hasan Chowdhury attended the function as the chief guest. Foreign Secretary Shafi Sami, French Ambassador to Bangladesh Alain Briottet, former foreign secretary Tabarak Hossain, ambassador Arshad uz Zaman, Director of Alliance Francaise de Dhaka Ms France Lasnier, author Ms Raana Haider and Mohiuddin Ahmed of UPL, among others, addressed the function.

Lauding the work on Paris, the state minister said Ms Raana Haider's book tastes like famous French cuisine if the reader has prior encounters with the most beautiful city on earth.

Chowdhury said Parisian Portraits would enhance existing cultural ties between Dhaka and Paris and help the readers learn more about the city, home of brave French revolution that was pivotal in spreading the messages of equality, liberty and fraternity.

The French envoy, Alain Briottet, termed Ms Haider as a 'friend of France' and praised her works as a very well documented work on Paris.

Ms Raana Haider who did her Masters in Sociology from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, spent her days in Paris first as the daughter of a diplomat and later as a spouse of a Bangladeshi diplomat.

Narrating salient features of her book, she said Paris is not only a city but a feeling. She termed Paris as the city of lights and said she was charmed by the Arc de Triomphe, the Bois de Boulogne and the Champs-Elysees.

The author termed herself as Parisian not by birth but by choice.