Home
+
Published : 25 Jan 2025, 02:22 AM
The absence of female writers among the recipients of this year’s Bangla Academy Literary Award has sparked widespread criticism, with Cultural Affairs Advisor Mostofa Sarwar Farooki calling the omission “surprising” and advocating for an overhaul of the selection process.
On Friday, Farooki took to Facebook to express his concerns over the lack of female representation among the awardees.
He wrote, “The ministry or I have no personal connection with the Bangla Academy Award. We have a direct role in the Ekushey Padak.”
“Still, as the person in charge of the ministry, I accept the criticisms that are being made about this award.”
Farooki continued, “It is surprising to not to find a single female writer. The questions that have been raised regarding some categories are also not unreasonable. It is time to reform the nomination process for this award.”
“At the same time, we have to work on how to make the academy inclusive and not make it a gathering place for a special group. We need to work on how to make young talent be a part of its driving force.”
When approached for a comment on the issue, Bangla Academy Director General Mohammad Azam declined to respond.
Ten individuals, including playwright Syed Jamil Ahmed and essayist Salimullah Khan, have been named recipients of this year’s Bangla Academy Literary Award.
The academy's public relations department announced the names of the awardees in ten categories for the year 2024 in a media statement on Thursday.
This year, Masud Khan will receive the award for poetry, Selim Morshed for fiction, and Shubhashish Sinha for drama and playwriting.
Salimullah will be awarded for essays or prose, Faruk Nawaz for children's literature, and GH Habib for translation.
Moreover, Mohammad Shahjahan Mia will receive the award for research, Rezaur Rahman for science, Mohammad Hanan for the Liberation War, and Syed Jamil Ahmed for folklore.
Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus will formally present the awards at the inauguration ceremony of the Amar Ekushey Book Fair on Feb 1.
The academy has been awarding this prize regularly since 1960, five years after its establishment in 1955.
According to the Bangla Academy website, the purpose of this award is to "create a conducive environment for education and culture by recognising the creative genius of contemporary living writers of the Bengali language and literature through identifying their overall original contributions."
