Ferdousy Priyabhashini is a brave woman and an eminent Bangladeshi sculptor. She is a valiant freedom fighter of this country. She is a spirited soul, a real progressive. Her works are attuned to the needs of a new time. She often refrains from giving any polish to her works of wood and bamboo in order to let it go with its natural color and texture. And here her works are simple but different. Priyabhashini has created a new world, where she has no parallel. This is certainly a quality every true artist wants to possess, to create one's own style through which one can be identified. It is truer with Priyabhashini. Priyabhashini works with logs and roots of dead trees. She also uses things which a non-artist would easily throw away as waste. But through them and in them Priyabhashini brings out life. And it's not just static life, but life in motion. Moments of that motion is expressed in various colors and shapes. Priyabhashini adds rhythm and speed into everything. The day she first received a prize from Sher-e-Bangla AK Fazlul Haq is still vivid in her memory. Now she is a celebrity. All those who understand artwork shower appreciations upon her for her unique sculptures. But it also costs her a lot. It was a long, bumpy road to reach the pinnacle. She groomed herself virtually as a self-made woman.
Sculptor Ferdousy Priyabhashini – the second Bangladeshi to be chosen as a ‘Hero’ by the Reader’s Digest magazine in its December, 2004, issue for the valour she displayed in acknowledging herself as a war-victim. Born in 1947 at the Khulna district, she got her unique name – Ferdousi Priyabhashini – from her grandfather. ‘My childhood was very joyful. My neighbours and teachers used to love me for my vivacity and liveliness. Winning competitions was a regular feat for me,’ Ferdousy says. Her entire family moved to KM Das Lane of Tikatuli area of Dhaka when she was around six years old. ‘Sher-e-Bangla used to live just a couple of blocks away from ours. I have received a number of prizes from him. But I was always scared of his giant figure,’ she recalls. A bookworm, Ferdousy Priyabhashini felt herself to be the happiest woman in the world when she received books as awards during her childhood. But life is not a bed of roses, not even for Priyabhashini. When she was 16, she chose an artist as her husband thinking he would inspire her to continue cultural activity. Instead, he stood in her way. ‘The struggles in my life took a serious turn after my marriage. I started working with Peoples Jute Mill in Khalishpur industrial area of Khulna district to help my husband afford the expenses of his education.’ says Ferdousy. As her relationship with her husband began to deteriorate, Ferdousy decided to leave him in 1971 when she was 24. After the divorce, she joined Crescent Jute Mill to support her mother, younger brothers and sisters, and her own three children in 1971 when the war that liberated Bangladesh from the then East Pakistan broke out. ‘We could not imagine the nature of the hardships that awaited us in the days to come. The brutality of the Biharis had crossed all limits in Khalishpur area during the early part of the war,’ she recollects. ‘I couldn’t flee like others, as I had to eke out the expenses of six children of mine and my mother with my meager income.’ During the liberation war, she was taken into a torture cell by the barbaric Pakistani occupation forces. After the liberation war, the women who were repressed during the War of Independence honoured her as a ‘Birangana’ (heroic woman). She was tortured brutally for seven-and-a-half months. She saw brutal murders everyday. The occupation forces and the local people who collaborated with the Pakistan army misbehaved with her. She had to entertain three to five people everyday on average. ‘I was falsely implicated in a murder case and branded as a member of Naxalite Party. During May 1971, I was tortured just like 400,000 other women of Bangladesh. I had to stay in the Jessore Cantonment for 28 hours at a stretch,’ Ferdousy says recalling her ordeals during the war. Shell-shocked by the brutal behaviour by the Pakistanis and their collaborators, she was franticly looking for support. And then came forward AT Ahmedullah Ahmed, one of her friends, to her aid. After the liberation, she married Ahmedullah. Who knew that more shocks were awaiting her even after the war! When she went to join her old job, colleagues branded her as a collaborator. And her new sister in-laws also joined them. ‘For our marriage, my husband had to sacrifice the share of his ancestral property and house as I was a Birangana and was alleged to be a collaborator,’ she laments. Ferdousy was the first woman to formally testify 28 years after Bangladesh’s independence how she was brutally repressed by the Pakistan army during the nine-month long war of liberation. Her testimony was published in a book ‘Tormenting Seventy One’ edited by Shahriar Kabir and published by Ekatturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee. Mother of three daughters by her second husband, Ferdousy has had long leisure times to spend that prompted her to decorate her house with bamboo, wood and other materials. When her husband was the general manager of the Jessore Raj Textile Mill at Noapara during 1984-88, she decorated her house with bamboo, attracting visitors. Many of the celebrities of Bangladesh and India used to visit her house regularly as a stopover while travelling between India and Bangladesh. Konika Bandopadhya, a legendary Rabindra Sangeet singer, Professor Amlan Dutta, former vice chancellor of Visva Bharati University from India, SM Sultan, Wahidul Haque and Sanjida Kahtun and many others were among the visitors.
And she then turned herself into a self-made sculptor. Since 1990, a good number of her solo and group exhibitions have been arranged where she has exhibited her works. Her first exhibition was jointly inaugurated by great artist SM Sultan and poet Sufia Kamal, and anchored by Syed Shamsul Haque. "I can no longer change myself, so I want to bring in change into my work. I am always trying to add new and newer dimension.-‘Priyabhashini.’
Sculptor Ferdousy Priyabhashini – the second Bangladeshi to be chosen as a ‘Hero’ by the Reader’s Digest magazine in its December, 2004, issue for the valour she displayed in acknowledging herself as a war-victim. Born in 1947 at the Khulna district, she got her unique name – Ferdousi Priyabhashini – from her grandfather. ‘My childhood was very joyful. My neighbours and teachers used to love me for my vivacity and liveliness. Winning competitions was a regular feat for me,’ Ferdousy says. Her entire family moved to KM Das Lane of Tikatuli area of Dhaka when she was around six years old. ‘Sher-e-Bangla used to live just a couple of blocks away from ours. I have received a number of prizes from him. But I was always scared of his giant figure,’ she recalls. A bookworm, Ferdousy Priyabhashini felt herself to be the happiest woman in the world when she received books as awards during her childhood. But life is not a bed of roses, not even for Priyabhashini. When she was 16, she chose an artist as her husband thinking he would inspire her to continue cultural activity. Instead, he stood in her way. ‘The struggles in my life took a serious turn after my marriage. I started working with Peoples Jute Mill in Khalishpur industrial area of Khulna district to help my husband afford the expenses of his education.’ says Ferdousy. As her relationship with her husband began to deteriorate, Ferdousy decided to leave him in 1971 when she was 24. After the divorce, she joined Crescent Jute Mill to support her mother, younger brothers and sisters, and her own three children in 1971 when the war that liberated Bangladesh from the then East Pakistan broke out. ‘We could not imagine the nature of the hardships that awaited us in the days to come. The brutality of the Biharis had crossed all limits in Khalishpur area during the early part of the war,’ she recollects. ‘I couldn’t flee like others, as I had to eke out the expenses of six children of mine and my mother with my meager income.’ During the liberation war, she was taken into a torture cell by the barbaric Pakistani occupation forces. After the liberation war, the women who were repressed during the War of Independence honoured her as a ‘Birangana’ (heroic woman). She was tortured brutally for seven-and-a-half months. She saw brutal murders everyday. The occupation forces and the local people who collaborated with the Pakistan army misbehaved with her. She had to entertain three to five people everyday on average. ‘I was falsely implicated in a murder case and branded as a member of Naxalite Party. During May 1971, I was tortured just like 400,000 other women of Bangladesh. I had to stay in the Jessore Cantonment for 28 hours at a stretch,’ Ferdousy says recalling her ordeals during the war. Shell-shocked by the brutal behaviour by the Pakistanis and their collaborators, she was franticly looking for support. And then came forward AT Ahmedullah Ahmed, one of her friends, to her aid. After the liberation, she married Ahmedullah. Who knew that more shocks were awaiting her even after the war! When she went to join her old job, colleagues branded her as a collaborator. And her new sister in-laws also joined them. ‘For our marriage, my husband had to sacrifice the share of his ancestral property and house as I was a Birangana and was alleged to be a collaborator,’ she laments. Ferdousy was the first woman to formally testify 28 years after Bangladesh’s independence how she was brutally repressed by the Pakistan army during the nine-month long war of liberation. Her testimony was published in a book ‘Tormenting Seventy One’ edited by Shahriar Kabir and published by Ekatturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee. Mother of three daughters by her second husband, Ferdousy has had long leisure times to spend that prompted her to decorate her house with bamboo, wood and other materials. When her husband was the general manager of the Jessore Raj Textile Mill at Noapara during 1984-88, she decorated her house with bamboo, attracting visitors. Many of the celebrities of Bangladesh and India used to visit her house regularly as a stopover while travelling between India and Bangladesh. Konika Bandopadhya, a legendary Rabindra Sangeet singer, Professor Amlan Dutta, former vice chancellor of Visva Bharati University from India, SM Sultan, Wahidul Haque and Sanjida Kahtun and many others were among the visitors.
And she then turned herself into a self-made sculptor. Since 1990, a good number of her solo and group exhibitions have been arranged where she has exhibited her works. Her first exhibition was jointly inaugurated by great artist SM Sultan and poet Sufia Kamal, and anchored by Syed Shamsul Haque. "I can no longer change myself, so I want to bring in change into my work. I am always trying to add new and newer dimension.-‘Priyabhashini.’