'Birangona' Ferdousi Priyabhashini no more

FT ONLINE

Noted sculptor Ferdousi Priyabhashini passed away at a Dhaka city hospital on Tuesday noon. She was 71.

Ferdousi Priyabhashini, who was undergoing treatment at Labaid Hospital, breathed her last around 12:45pm, her son Karu Titash said to media.

The Swadhinata Padak winner was suffering from multiple complications including diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease.

She was admitted to the hospital last month with kidney complications. Apart from this, she had been suffering from orthopedic problems, Titash said.  

Earlier, she was admitted to the hospital on November 8 last year after she fell on the floor of her Gulshan residence and hurt her leg.

Priyabhashini, persecuted by Pakistani occupation army and its local collaborators during the 1971 Liberation War, was recognised as freedom fighter in 2016.

She was the first one to publicly announce herself as 'Birangona', a term coined by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman for the rape victims of the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed her deep shock and sorrow at the death of the war heroine.

Cultural Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Noor also condoled her death.