Dhaka, May 19 (bdnews24.com)—Nishat Mazumder has climbed to the fearsome and unforgiving peak of Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain at more than five miles high, as the first Bangladeshi woman.
She ascended to Everest's 8,850-meter-high (29,035-foot-high) summit from the northern side of the mountain in Nepal on Saturday morning with M A Mohit, the second Bangladeshi to have conquered the Everest.
An accountant by profession, Mazumder was accompanied by Mohit, a veteran climber who made it to the top of Everest, Manaslu and Cho-Oyu-3 summits higher than 8,000 metres.
"We found out from her Sherpa that Nishat and M A Mohit have made it to the top around 9:30am," Bangla Mountaineering and Trekking Club founder Inam Al Haque told bdnews24.com on Saturday.
Both Mazumder and Mohit are members of the club.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has congratulated Mazumder on her success.
Mazumder, the second child of her parents, was also the first Bangladeshi woman to have conquered three Himalayan peaks higher than 6,000 metres. She conquered Himalaya's Mera Peak (6,653.78 metres) in 2007, Singchuli Peak (6,501 metres) in 2008 and Makalu Peak (8,493.3 metres) in 2009.
Born in Laxmipur, Mazumder completed her secondary education at Bottomley Home Girls High School and higher secondary education at Shahid Anwar Girls College. She did her bachelors and masters in accounting from Dhaka City College and currently works for Dhaka WASA.
Mazumder dedicated her ascent to Plan International's 'Because I am a Girl' campaign. NGO Plan Bangladesh co-sponsored her expedition that began on Apr 9.
Musa Ibrahim, member of Bangladesh's North Alpine Club, was the first Bangladeshi to have conquered the Everest on May 22, 2010.
Weather conditions on the mountain have been challenging this year, prompting several expeditions to cancel their plans to try to reach the summit.
May is considered the best month to climb Everest, when climbers get about two windows of good weather for their bid for the summit.
'Because I am a girl'
When Plan Bangladesh launches its 'Because I am a Girl' campaign this October they plan to urge everyone to raise their hands, 'Hands Up!' they call it, in support of women's empowerment.
Nishat Mazumder, their champion, will have already raised her hand on top of the Everest. "Now that has got to be the highest raised hand in the world, right? You couldn't get any higher than the Everest," said Nova Shams, Plan's spokesperson in Dhaka.
Given her unprecedented feat as a Bangladeshi woman, Mazumder will naturally feature prominently in the campaign that will be launched on the global Girl Child Day on Oct 11 globally.
"And this ties in really well with our theme," Shams told bdnews24.com She has shown that woman too can overcome daunting odds with the family support and mental resolve.
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