Rabia Bhuiyan (born 1 March 1944) is a

Jatiya Party (Ershad) The Jatiya Party (, ; JaPa or JP(E)) is a political party of Bangladesh. The current chairman of the party is Ghulam Muhammed Quader. On 3 January 2019, the party announced its decision to join the Bangladesh Awami League-led Grand Alliance a ...

politician and a former

Jatiya Sangsad The Jatiya Sangsad (), often simply referred to as Sangsad and also known as is the unicameral Legislature, legislative body of Bangladesh. The current parliament of Bangladesh contains 350 seats, including 50 seats reserved exclusively for w ...

member from women's reserved seat 19. She is the first female barrister in Bangladesh. She is most notable for founding the law school, Bhuiyan Academy, in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...

Early life

Bhuiyan was born on 1 March 1944 in

in the then

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

(now in Bangladesh). She was married to barrister AKM Mozammel Hoque Bhuiyan (1939-2008).

Career

Bhuiyan was elected to parliament from a reserved seat as a Jatiya Party (Ershad) candidate in June 1996. She and her husband founded Bhuiyan Academy which provides distance learning for law courses from University of London. Bhuiyan served as the minister of social welfare and women's affairs in the first Hasina cabinet. In 1998, with the then deputy speaker's consent, she became the first female voted speaker for a one-day parliament session. In 1999, Bhuiyan filed a landmark environment case titled ''Rabia Bhuiyan, MP'' v ''Ministry of LGRD'' which acknowledged that the government has a responsibility to ensure access to safe drinking water.

References

1944 births Living people Jatiya Party (Ershad) politicians Women members of the Jatiya Sangsad 7th Jatiya Sangsad members 20th-century Bangladeshi women politicians Jatiya Party politicians {{JatiyaParty-politician-stub