Bangladesh diplomat Ismat Jahan to lead OIC in European Union

Bangladeshi diplomat Ismat Jahan has been appointed as the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) ambassador in Brussels.

A career diplomat, Jahan told bdnews24.com that she took ‘lien’ to join the OIC, a bloc of 57 Muslim countries. She will head the OIC's Permanent Observer Mission to the European Union.

 

Jahan belongs to the 1982 batch of BCS (Foreign Affairs) cadre and is currently the Bangladesh ambassador in Brussels.

 

The government had recently decided to transfer her to the London mission.

 

She told bdnews24.com the OIC secretary general had been offering her the EU job for a long time. “This time I could not say no”.

 

“I have served my country for long, now on lien will give my effort at the international level,” she said.

 

She will serve for the next four years as the first Bangladeshi in this position.

 

In her long career, Jahan earlier served as the permanent representative of Bangladesh to the UN in New York and as the ambassador to Netherlands.

 

Beside those assignments, she served in Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi and Bangladesh Permanent Mission in Geneva in different capacities.

 

She was also elected twice the member of the CEDAW Committee that works for eliminating discrimination against women. She studied economics in Dhaka University.

 

The OIC has opened the Permanent Observer Mission to the EU in 2013 with the aim to promote “efficient cooperation and coordination” among members states.