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Published : 03 Sep 2018, 09:27 AM
Her death was announced at 4:40am on Monday at Chattogram Medical College Hospital, where she was undergoing treatment, her long-time companion and publisher Alauddin Khokon told bdnews24.com.
She was 79. Chowdhury had been admitted to the hospital in January due to her diabetes, high blood pressure and various other health complications.
“Her condition deteriorated last night and she was put on life support at the ICU around 11:30am,” said Khokon. “But we lost hope of her recovery this morning.”
Her body will be taken to the Chattogram Central Shaheed Minar at 11am so people can pay their respects, Chattogram United Cultural Alliance Convening Committee Member Secretary Ahmed Iqbal Haider told bdnews24.com. She will then be laid to rest at her ancestral home in Boalkhali.
Roma Chowdhury graduated from Dhaka University in 1961 with a degree in Bangla Literature and chose to teach.
On May 13, 1971, during the Liberation War, Chowhdury was with her three children at her home in Boalkhali’s Popadia village. Her husband was abroad in India at the time.
The Pakistani military, with support from local Razakars, attacked her home, raped her and set the house on fire. Since that day Chowdhury has chosen to walk barefoot.
Two of her children, Sagor, 5, and Togor, 3, died within two years of the incident. Her third child was killed in a road accident.
Roma Chowdhury wrote 19 books over the course of an illustrious career including ‘’71 Er Jononi’, ‘Ek Hazar Ek Din Japoner Poddo’ and ‘Bhab Boichitre Rabindranath’.
She controlled the sales of her own books and dreamed of using the earnings from them to build an orphanage.
