Bangabandhu believed in peace through fairness, justice and equality: Saima Wazed

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s daughter Saima Wazed Hossain has said Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman believed in peace through fairness, justice and equality.

Saima, granddaughter of Bangabandhu, hopes focusing on the basic principles of peace and ideals of Bangabandhu will help the human race achieve greater peace. 

“He (Bangabandhu) believed peace could only be achieved through fairness, justice and equality,” she said, joining the World Peace Conference in Dhaka virtually.

Speaking at a session titled ‘Peace through Inter-faith Dialogue, Culture and Heritage’ at the Foreign Service Academy on Sunday, Saima said, “In our current era, we see fewer wars and battles perhaps, but the observation of these wars doesn’t mean we have greater peace”

“We hope that by coming together in this conference, focusing the cornerstone idea, basic principles of peace and ideals of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman would really help our societies, the human race as a whole achieve greater peace, achieve greater harmony,” said Saima, member secretary of the conference’s organising committee.

“The more we live in a society that is most technologically advanced for the human race, the more we seem to have achieved in every field that we can think of, the smaller is our achievement of peace and harmony and fairness.”

“The advancement we see particularly with the human race in the area of technology doesn’t seem to reach those who are limited, who are vulnerable, who are more disenfranchised,” said Saima, who was designated as WHO Champion for Autism in South-East Asia Region in 2017 for spearheading a campaign for mental health wellbeing.

“The disparity between the haves and have-nots continues to grow. The disparities between religious beliefs, in causes of extreme poverty, socialised relation, disability- all seem to be more and more.”

“When we are actually are living in a time when we are more resource rich, when we seem to have most advancement the human race have ever experienced. It almost seems we as people choose to be different, choose to be separate, rather than coming together, working in cooperation, working in collaboration.

“We have wealth galore, we have resources galore, we have evolved a society, we have advanced, we have ways of communicating and being together, like this platform from across the world.

“And yet, what continues to be highlighted, what continues to be the focus is our differences, not what brings us together, not what unites us, not what is common to all of us. We are becoming increasingly small minded and narrow in our thinking and practices.

“We look to go into other planets, when choose to keep destroying the one we have. We hold on to beliefs and practices that are hurtful instead of embracing ways to increase the pathways to love and care for each other.”