On 8 March, 2021, IEEE Bangladesh Section, IEEE Bangladesh Section, Women in Engineering Affinity Group and IEEE BUET Student Branch Women in Engineering Affinity Group jointly organised an online campaign to celebrate international women’s day. This year’s campaign theme of International Women’s Day is “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world”. The theme celebrates the tremendous efforts by women and girls around the world in shaping a more equal future and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. 87 participants including both students and faculty members from twenty different universities in Bangladesh attended this event along with individuals representing Grameen Shakti.
Sanjana Mehjabin, Chairperson, IEEE BUET SB WIE Affinity Group, began the online event at 05:15 PM by giving a brief speech and requested Dr. Celia Shahnaz, Chair, IEEE Bangladesh Section to take over.
Dr. Celia Shahnaz inaugurated the ceremony by giving a short speech on her inspirations and the tag “ChooseToChallenge”. She introduced the speakers to the audience by describing their various accomplishments.
The first speaker was Emi Yano, Chair, IEEE Region 10 Women in Engineering (WIE). She talked about the rising membership numbers in Region 10, even during the pandemic and the activities of Region 10 as a whole. She explained how she took the challenge to work towards diversity.
Ar. Selina Afroza, Chairman at Archetype Ltd., President of WAEPA, Bangladesh, started her speech by thanking IEEE Bangladesh Section for inviting her. She talked about the activities of WAEPA, how the platform talks about the issues women face in the workplace and in society.
The next speaker was Farah Tanjeem, Senior Expert, Planning Efficiency. She discussed her accomplishments as well as the story of her mother Khaleda Ahsan, Former Chief Engineer, Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE). She shared her early childhood memories of society’s behaviour towards women and their accomplishments.
She shared the stories of Khaleda Ahsan breaking the social norms of that time by pursuing her Engineering degree and her extraordinary worklife.
A member of IEEE BUET Student Branch, Tasnim NIshat Islam shared the news of their securing a position in the top three in IWD Dev Mania 2021, by proposing an app that monitors the health of pregnant women. Dr. Celia Shahnaz mentioned the accomplishments of Sukanya Islam, Vice Chairperson, IEEE BUET Student Branch WIE Affinity Group.
Dr. Celia Shahnaz gave the ending speech by talking about this year’s theme, Choose to Challenge. The moderator, Sanjana Mehjabin ended the event by thanking the speakers for attending the online event and sharing their experiences.