Nashid Kamal

Nashid Kamal (born 19 March 1958) is a Bangladeshi vocalist, writer and professor of demography.

She is the eldest granddaughter of Bengali folk singer Abbasuddin Ahmed.

Kamal is widely regarded as a Nazrul exponent.

On 25 December 1964, she appeared on Pakistan Television (PTV), East Pakistan Centre, which is now Bangladesh Television (BTV) as a child singer on its inauguration day.

Apart from studying, she started learning music from various notable gurus including Ustad P.C. Gomes, Ustad Akther Shadmani, Ustad Quader Zameeree and Pandit Jasraj Besides learning music and singing, she became a debater and television presenter.

Kamal attended the Holy Cross Girls' High School, and stood 7th in the merit list for girls in the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination in 1973.

In 1975, she sat for Higher Secondary Examination (HSC) from the Holy Cross College, and stood 2nd in the combined merit list.

Kamal was awarded with the Best Speaker prize in 1976, when she participated in the first ever TV Debate Competition in Bangladesh called Torko Jukti Torko.

She studied statistics for her BSc( Hons) degree at the University of Dhaka, and passed with a first-class-first in 1980 (record marks).

Subsequently, Kamal went on to Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario in Canada to do her MSc in mathematics, and achieved the degree in 1982.

Nashid Kamal's professional career as a researcher started in 1983, when she joined ICDDR.B. She worked there for three years.

Kamal joined the Institute of Statistical Research and Training (ISRT) at Dhaka University in 1986.

Nashid Kamal married Dr. Anis Waiz in 1993, who served the Bangladesh Army and retired as a Major General.

Kamal attended the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) at Camden for a doctoral degree in Medical Demography, and was awarded with the PhD in 1996.

Later, she joined Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) as the head of department of population-environment in 1996 and worked there until 2010, when she joined North South University as a professor of biostatistics.

She had, also, been a consultant to UNFPA in Bangladesh(1999) and Sudan(2001).

She has more than 25 publications in peer-reviewed journals including the widely acknowledged health journal – The Lancet.

Her areas of interest are fertility decline in developing countries, multilevel regression, contraceptive use, shift in garment works due to MFA, RTI of women in the urban slums in Bangladesh, HIV/ AIDS, association of education of women with their uptake of health benefits.

Nashid Kamal has been a visiting scholar in the Department of Anthropology, Penn State University(1999), Department of Sociology, Southern Illinois University (2001) and Department of Statistical Sciences, University College London (2008).

Nashid Kamal has sixteen published books, 13 as a writer and three others as an editor.

She writes both in Bengali and English.

She has written fictions (novels and short stories), poems, autobiographies, articles and essays.

She, also, has translated notable Bengali literary works in English mostly from Nazrul.

The Return of Laili is her most talked about book series, which is a translation of Nazrul's popular songs.

Chokrobak is another noteworthy translation that comprises twenty two romantic poems of Nazrul.

He died in 2002.

She has two daughters, Armeen Musa and Aashna Musa from her first husband Hossain Md. Musa.

Armeen, a singer-songwriter by herself, conducts the choir Ghaasphoring.

Aashna is a lawyer/civil servant and resides in U.K.Nashid Kamal lives in Dhaka.Bangladesh.

For her contributions to Nazrul's works, she has received awards including the Nazrul Award from the Nazrul Academy in 2009 and Nazrul Padak from the Nazrul Institute in 2014.

Kamal, the eldest of three children, was born in London, England to parents Mustafa Kamal and Husne Ara Kamal.

Her father was a judge and served as the Chief Justice of Bangladesh.

Her mother was a poet, philanthropist and professor.

She was the Chairman of the Department of Social Welfare at Dhaka University before she took her retirement.

She has two sisters, Naeela Sattar and Nazeefa K. Monem.

Her uncle, Mustafa Zaman Abbasi, is a Bangladeshi musicologist and aunt, Ferdausi Rahman, is a legendary singer.

At the age of two, Nashid Kamal moved with her parents to Bangladesh (erstwhile East Pakistan), her mother country, to live permanently.

Kamal started singing at a young age.

and BRAC Business School as adjunct professor until 2014.

She is currently working as an adjunct professor at the IEDCR, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Bangladesh.