Hasina’s role praised in Bangkok on International Mother Language Day

The UNESCO Asia-Pacific Regional Office in Bangkok has lauded Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s role for the global recognition of Feb 21 as the International Mother Language Day.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 22 Feb 2018, 06:28 PM
Updated : 22 Feb 2018, 06:32 PM

Bangladesh observes the day as Language Martyrs’ Day. In 1999, UNESCO recognised it as International Mother Language Day.

Hasina was prime minister at the time. 

The Bangladesh embassy in Bangkok said UNESCO Regional Director Maki Hayashikawa and other panellists at a discussion “highly praised” her role in getting the recognition of the day.

The Embassy of Bangladesh and the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Regional Office in Bangkok jointly organised the discussion marking the day when in 1952 students in Dhaka sacrificed their lives and secured the Bengalis’ right to mother tongue.

Embassies of India, China, Russia, France, Colombia, Mexico, Belgium, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, and Sudan, the secretary general of Thailand’s National UNESCO Commission, SIL International and Thamassat University joined the panel discussion and cultural segments in solidarity with Bangladesh’s Martyr’s Day and International Mother Language Day commemorative event.
Bangladesh Ambassador to Thailand Saida Muna Tasneem called upon the UNESCO and other regional institutions in Asia and the Pacific to collaborate with the International Mother Language Institute in Dhaka “towards its capacity-building for preserving and researching more than 7000 languages of the world.”
She also called for awareness and special care by the diaspora in teaching mother tongue Bangla to expatriate children while promoting their multilingual skills to foster cultural diversity.