Bangabandhu believed in peace, harmony: Saima Wazed

Chairperson of the National Advisory Committee on Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Saima Wazed Hossain today said Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman believed in peace and he had the faith that peace could only be achieved through fairness, justice and equality.

 “Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, my grandfather, led his life, his entire life to achieve this peace and worked towards peace in order to achieve social equality and harmony,” she said.

Social justice and fairness was at the core and the foundation of everything he did at the very beginning of his political career, Saima said, virtually addressing a panel discussion titled "Peace through Inter-faith Dialogue, Culture and Heritage" at Foreign Service Academy here on the second day of the two-day World Peace Conference.

Saima, also member secretary of the Organizing Committee of World Peace Conference and daughter of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said peace is about social equality and it is about freedom to warship and live life without judgment, living life to the fullest and achieving without barriers that are placed due to limitations of economics, limitations of political beliefs, religious practices, physical and psychological limitations, social and cultural limitations.                

David Fernandez Puyana, Permanent Observer of the United Nations University for Peace to the UN Office and other International Organizations in Geneva, moderated the panel discussion.

Philip Ruddock, former Minister (Liberal) for Reconciliation, Multicultural Affairs and President of NSW Liberal Party; Ahmed Mohamed Rashid Aljarwan Alshamsi, President of Global Council for Tolerance and Peace (GCTP), Abu Dhabi, UAE; Karen Jungblut, Director of Collections, USC Shoah Foundation, Institute for Visual History and Education, University of Southern California, USA; Dr. Dimitrios Vassiliadis, Professor of Indian Languages, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and Dr. Michal Panasiuk, Lecturer–Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Warsaw also addressed the session.

Saima, also World Health Organization's (WHO) Goodwill Ambassador for Southeast Asia, said many people forget how Bangabandhu started and what he stood for, because he was larger than life person and founder of the country.

"He believed in dialogue above of all else and standing up for the rights and fighting for those who could not speak for themselves," she said.

President Abdul Hamid inaugurated the two-day "World Peace Conference-2021" on Saturday at Hotel Intercontinental in the capital on the Birth Centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Golden Jubilee of the country's independence.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina attended and addressed the closing ceremony of the two-day "World Peace Conference-2021" in city today joining virtually from her official Ganabhaban residence here. A 16-point Dhaka declaration was adopted at the conference.

A video message from former prime minister of the UK James Gordon Brown was also aired at the closing ceremony.

Goh Chok Tong, a Singaporean former prime minister, Irina Georgieva Bokova, a Bulgarian politician and the former Director-General of UNESCO, and Husain Haqqani, a senior fellow and director for South and Central Asia at Hudson Institute, also addressed the concluding session.

Representatives from 50 countries including Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary-General of the UN; Jos, Ramos-Horta, former president of East Timor, spoke at the inaugural ceremony of the conference, both virtually and in person.