Dipu Moni

Dr. Dipu Moni (Bengali: দীপু মনি, born 8 December 1965) is a Bangladeshi politician who served as Foreign Minister of Bangladesh from 2009 to 2013. She was appointed the first female Foreign Minister on 6 January 2009 after a landslide victory for the Awami League-led Grand Alliance on 29 December 2008. She is the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Bangladesh National Parliament and the former Foreign Minister of the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. Dipu Moni re-elected again Joint Secretary of Bangladesh Awami League 20th council. She represents Chandpur-3 (Chandpur-Haimchar) as a Member of the 10th National Parliament of Bangladesh.

Early life

Moni is a daughter of MA Wadud, who was a founding member of the Bangladesh Awami League and known especially for his role in the Language Movement and as the first Council-elected General Secretary of the East Pakistan Chhatra League. Dipu Moni passed HSC from Holy Cross College, Dhaka. She studied MBBS at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital and LLB at Bangladesh National University. She later studied at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, and at the University of London. She had completed a course on Negotiations and Conflict Resolutions from Harvard University. She is a lawyer of Bangladesh Supreme Court.

Political career

Moni was the Secretary for Women’s Affairs and a Member of the Sub‐Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Bangladesh Awami League before her induction to the cabinet.

She represented Chandpur‐3 as a Member of Bangladesh Parliament. She worked for women's rights and entitlements, health legislation, health policy and management, health financing, strategic planning, and health and human rights under the Constitution and law in Bangladesh's economic and social development programmes and foreign policy issues of the region and globally.As a Minister of Foreign Affairs she has represented her government's position to the Cabinet Ministers and public representatives of Asia, Europe and the USA, Ambassadors and Senior Representatives of International Institutions. As the foreign minister she sought an apology for the 1971 Bangladesh Genocide from Pakistan. She also tried to bring the absconding killers of president Sheikh Mujib. She is the present Awami League Joint General Secretary. She was elected chairman of Asian University for Women in 2016. She is the chairperson of the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs.

Criticisms

As Minister of Foreign Affairs Moni was widely criticized by different news media because of her frequent overseas visits. According to some news reports, she made 187 foreign trips and 600 days of overseas stay in four and a half years. In response, Moni said she went abroad every time with the consent of the prime minister, who gave her approval after studying the pros and cons of every visit. She made 114 foreign tours, including 36 with the president and the prime minister and claimed that the number of her bilateral visits was 62, not 17 as reported.

Personal life

Dipu Moni is married to Tawfique Nawaz, one of the two Oxbridge educated Senior Advocates of the Bangladesh Supreme Court. Nawaz is head of an internationally reputed law firm. He is also a parampara exponent of at least 2000 year old Indian Classical Musical form, namely Aalaap, on the Grande Flute. They have one son, Tawquir Rashaad Nawaz and a daughter, Tani Deepavali Nawaz.