Feature

Marina Mahathir speaks at IUB

DATIN Paduka Marina Mahathir, the illustrious daughter of Dr Mahathir Mohammed of Malaysia and an internationally famous campaigner on HIV/AIDS, Member, International Steering Committee of the Asia Pacific Leadership Forum on HIV and AIDS, delivered a Key note speech on “HIV/AIDS: Facing the Challenge” on Tuesday, 12 August 2008 at 5:00 pm at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) Baridhara, Dhaka. She specially focused on the global scenario of HIV/AIDS and shared her experiences and challenges as the leading campaigner against AIDS in the Asia Pacific region. The Seminar was organized by the Centre for Health, Population and Development (CHPD) of the IUB.

The Pro Vice Chancellor and the Executive Director of CHPD, Prof Omar Rahman introduced the guest and said that it was important to address the sufferings of the mankind. The Vice Chancellor Prof Bazlul Mobin Chowdhury heartily welcomed the guest and thanked her for fighting the menace the whole world including Bangladesh was facing. He hoped that the concerted efforts of all concerned people all over the world would be able to get rid of it. Dr Rita Yousuf, Asst Professor gave the vote of thanks. Dan Odallo, UNAIDS Country Coordinator was also present at the Seminar. The Directors of the Schools, the IUB Registrar Dr Tanvir A Khan, and other high official of IUB Management attended the Seminar.

The presentation highlighted the importance of good leadership in Muslim majority countries in battling HIV/AIDS, and discussed the importance of engaging all stakeholders, especially the religious leaders. There was a lively discussion following the presentation, which was attended by a large number of IUB faculty members, academics, policy makers and students.

Marina Mahathir shared her experiences and mentioned the challenges she faced to fight against HIV/AIDS in Malaysia. She started working against it in the year 1993. She said, “We have to take the right approach to fight against HIV/AIDS and having positive approach to the problem is very important. In a Muslim country one has to be very careful to address the issue so that we may involve the religious sections to the population in the campaign against HIV/AIDS. Leadership is very important in this regard to address HIV/AIDS as well as for the development of a country and this leadership should emerge from a democratically elected government”. She has also mentioned that HIV/AIDS is not yet a major problem for Bangladesh, so it should not be a problem to face the issue by banking on the experience of other countries which have been fighting against it for over 20 years”. The increased literacy rate would be instrumental to address HIV/AIDS in Bangladesh. She mentioned that women and youth are more vulnerable to the problem and this should be the main area to begin the work. She also emphasized on involving youth volunteers for the campaign of creating awareness about it.

The lecture was attended by the Directors, members of the faculty and management students of various universities and other professionals. Lively discussions followed the lecture.