Staff Reporter, USA: The Great Martyrs’ Day and International Mother Language Day were celebrated at the UN Permanent Mission to Bangladesh with due dignity. A minute’s silence was observed at the beginning of the event held at the Bangabandhu Auditorium on Sunday (February 21) local time to pay homage to the memory of the great Ekushey language martyrs. Earlier, wreaths were laid at the temporary Shaheed Minar in the auditorium by a morning ferry. This information has been revealed from a press release sent by the Bangladesh Permanent Mission.
During the program, the speeches of the President, Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and State Minister for Foreign Affairs were recited and prayers were offered for the forgiveness of the souls of the martyrs of the great Ekushey language. A documentary video was also shown on the occasion of the day.
The discussion session of the program started with the welcome speech of Rabab Fatima, Permanent Representative and Ambassador of Bangladesh to the United Nations. Referring to the theme of this year’s International Mother Language Day, “We cherish the inclusion of multilingualism in education and society,” said Ambassador Fatima.
At the outset of his speech, he paid homage to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the father of the nation and the pioneer of the language movement. Ambassador Fatima said, “The Rashtrabhasha Sangram Parishad was formed in 1948 on the proposal of Bangabandhu with the help of Chhatra League, Tamaddun Majlish and other student organizations. It is this council that accelerates the language movement. The Father of the Nation has been repeatedly arrested for protesting against language. He gave direction to the language movement from jail. In the continuation of that brutal movement, the language martyrs died while violating Article 144 issued by the ruling party on February 21, 1952 ”.
Ambassador Fatima highlighted the context of how the Bengali nation under the leadership of the Father of the Nation won the great war of liberation in 1971 along the path of language movement. He also highlighted the way Bangladesh is moving forward in the world including the United Nations under the able leadership of the Prime Minister. Ambassador Fatima noted that the Prime Minister’s prudence in procuring the Covid-19 vaccine for Bangladesh and the government’s success in the ongoing vaccination program have been appreciated all over the world. “We are continuing our efforts to implement the proposal made by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to the United Nations to recognize Bengali as one of the official languages of 250 million people of the world,” he said.
Ambassador Fatima called upon the expatriate Bengalis to continue the pure practice of Bengali in the family and community to keep the Bengali language alive among the new generation growing up in exile. Officers and staff of all levels of the mission took part in the open discussion session. The event was celebrated to a limited extent in keeping with social distance, according to local restrictions on Covid-19.
Note that the UN-based celebration of International Mother Language Day is going to be celebrated tomorrow in a joint venture of Bangladesh Permanent Mission to the UN, UN Headquarters and UNESCO and UN Mission in Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Jordan, Lithuania and New Zealand. The event, which will take place on 22 February 2021 from 12:00 to 13:30, will be broadcast live on UN Wave TV.
BP/SM
