Shamsunnahar Khwaja Ahsanullah (born 21 September 1934) is a Bangladeshi politician from

Bangladesh Nationalist Party The Bangladesh Nationalist Party ( bn, বাংলাদেশ জাতীয়তাবাদী দল, Bangladesh Jātīyotābādī Dol; BNP) is a centre-right to right-wing nationalist, political party in Bangladesh and one of the major ...

, a former two-term

Jatiya Sangsad The Jatiya Sangsad ( bn, জাতীয় সংসদ, lit=National Parliament, translit=Jatiyô Sôngsôd), often referred to simply as the ''Sangsad'' or JS and also known as the House of the Nation, is the supreme legislative body of B ...

member from the Women's Reserved Seats and a member of the

Dhaka Nawab family The Nawab of Dhaka ( Bengali: "ঢাকার নবাব"), originally spelt in English Nawab of Dacca, was the title of the head of largest Muslim zamindar in British Bengal and Assam, based in present-day Dhaka, Bangladesh. The title of ''n ...

Career

Shamsunnahar Khwaja Ahsanullah was selected to the parliament in 1991 as a candidate of the

. She was re-elected in 1996, the 6th parliamentary election of Bangladesh. The general elections were scrapped and another election was called over concerns of fairness in 1996. She was elected to the reserved seats for women in parliament by the

on 5 September 2005. She was an advisor to the Bangladesh Union Sadasya Sangstha. In 2008, she along with 86 other former

leaders expressed their support for party General Secretary

Khandaker Delwar Hossain Khondkar Delwar Hossain (1 February 1933 – 16 March 2011) was a Bangladesh Nationalist Party politician. He served as the secretary general of the party. He was elected five times as a Member of Parliament from constituency Manikganj-1 (Ghior-D ...

and Chairperson

Khaleda Zia Khaleda Zia (; born Khaleda Khanam Putul in 1945) is a Bangladeshi politician who served as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh from March 1991 to March 1996, and again from June 2001 to October 2006. She was the first female prime minister of Ba ...

during the Caretaker Government rule in Bangladesh. Begum Ahsanullah was sent into exile when the military government came into power. Along with being a politician, Ahsanullah served as the president of the Salimullah Orphanage since her husband's death in 1978. She resigned from her post as president in 2010.

Personal life

Ahsanullah was married to Nawabzada Khwaja Ahsanullah (1915–1978). She is the daughter-in-law of the Nawab of Dhaka, Sir

Khwaja Salimullah Nawab Sir Khwaja Salimullah Bahadur (7 June 1871 – 16 January 1915) was the fourth Nawab of Dhaka and one of the leading Muslim politicians during the British rule in India. In 1906, the Muslim League was officially founded at the educationa ...

. She has one son; Khwaja Zaki Ahsanullah and two daughters; Fawzia Ahsanullah and Ayesha Ahsanullah.

References

1934 births Living people Bangladesh Nationalist Party politicians 5th Jatiya Sangsad members 6th Jatiya Sangsad members 8th Jatiya Sangsad members Women members of the Jatiya Sangsad Members of the Dhaka Nawab family 20th-century Bangladeshi women politicians 21st-century Bangladeshi women politicians {{BangladeshNationalistParty-politician-stub