Jahanara Imam Museum Inaugurated
Next generations will takepride in it: Selina Hossain
DU Correspondent
Many of the invited guests and journalists were eagerly reading a framed letter written by Shaheed Janani (mother of the martyrs) Jahanara Imam during the War of Liberation asking her son Rumi, a freedom fighter, to sacrifice his life for the freedom of the country.In another frame, hung on a wall, there are letters sent by Jahanara Imam to different hospitals just after the war in search of missing Rumi. The same frame also contains some responses from the hospitals in the negative that "spells out emotion of a mother to get back her missing son." "For years from now on, our next generations will take pride observing the living history of the struggle and sacrifice of a mother for independent Bangladesh," said a noted litterateur Selina Hossain while inaugurating Shaheed Janani Jahanara Imam Memorial Museum at a house named Kanika at 35 Dhanmondi (Old Elephant Road) where she and her family members had lived. "Jahanara Imam was a mother who sent her son to war for the liberation of the country, and it is our duty to preserve the museum for our own sake," Selina said. The museum will also protect the history from distortion, she added. Jahanara Imam's youngest son Saif Imam Jami in collaboration with the relatives took the initiatives to preserve the memories of her mother. Many of the memoirs of Jahanara Imam including her bed, photographs, letters, books written or read by her, awards and utensils have been kept in an organised way in a small room. There are also her spectacles, batches, passports, chequebooks of different banks and other things. Jahanara Imam, also founder of Ekatturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee (committee to eliminate killers and collaborators of 1971), also known as Forum for Secular Bangladesh, died at a hospital in the USA after prolonged sufferings from cancer in 1994. Saif Imam Jami presided over the inaugural ceremony. He said, "In 1994, I could feel my mother's love for the country and its people, I could also see the love that the people gave to my mother. At that time I thought to preserve her memories in any form." "Today's museum is the realisation of that thought," he added. The museum will remain open from 10:00am to 5:00pm on every Saturday. Artist Hashem Khan, Prof Muntasir Mamun, writer Shahriar Kabir, Kazi Mukul, Shyamoli Nasrin Chowdhury, Salma Haq, Shimul Yusuf, Mofidul Haq, Shaheed Rumi's friends and others were present on the occasion.
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