Firdous Azim

Azim completed her master's degree in English from the University of Dhaka in 1976.^[6] She joined the University of Dhaka as a lecturer in 1978.^[6] She completed her PhD from the University of Sussex in 1989.^[7] She was married to Bashirul Haq, an architect.^[8]

Azim worked at the University of Dhaka till becoming a full professor in the English Department.^[6] She joined BRAC University in July 2004.^[6]

Azim published her book, The Colonial Rise of the Novel, in 1993 through Routledge.^[9][10] The books examines 18th century novels through feminist and post colonial lenses.^[11] In June 1994 she published "Lost in India: The Stories of Kim and Gora" in the journal of the Bangla Academy with Professor Kashinath Roy of the University of Dhaka.^[12][13]

In 1996, Azim edited, along with Niaz Zaman, Infinite Variety: Women in Society and Literature through The University Press Limited.^[7][14]

Azim, along with Niaz Zaman, edited Different Perspectives: Women Writing in Bangladesh in 1998.^[15]

Azim presented her paper, Feminist Struggles in Bangladesh in Creating Collective/Doing Transnational Politics at the European Social Forum, on 16 November 2004 and this paper was later published in the Feminist Review in July 2005.^[16]

Azim wrote Women and religion in Bangladesh: new paths for Open Democracy on 19 December 2007.^[17] In March 2008, she moderated a discussion on Stories of Change documentary.^[18]

Azim moderated a session of the 2012 Hay Festival.^[19] She spoke in the Commonwealth Writers Conversation: The Untold Story session of the 2013 Hay Festival.^[20] In March 2013, Azim edited Complex Terrains: Islam, Culture and Women in Asia for Routledge.^[7]

Azim hosted a panel at the 2014 Hay Festival in which she spoke with Zia Haider Rahman about his new novel, In the Light of What We Know.^[21][22] In 2015, she taught at the Umea Centre for Gender Studies in Umeå University.^[7]

On 11 August 2016, Azim presented the Nari O Sahitya colloquium at the Central Women's University.^[23] She was a judge at the 2016 Commonwealth Short Story Prize.^[24]

Azim served as a jury DSC Prize for South Asian Literature of 2018.^[25][26] Azim attended the launch of Resonance a literary journal of BRAC University in October 2019.^[27] In March 2019, she signed an open letter with a group of other activists accusing the government of Bangladesh of cowardly action for forcefully canceling a talk between Shahidul Alam and Arundhati Roy in Dhaka.^[28]

Azim is member of the Board of Trustees of Bangladesh Freedom Foundation.^[29] She is an editor of the Feminist Review and member of the Naripokkho and Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society.^[7] She is the leader of Naripokkho's The Forgotten Women of 1971 project.^[30][31] On 26 November 2020, she spoke at the Curriculum Integration (CI) Program of the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh.^[32] Azim signed a petition with 41 other academics calling on the government to form a Supreme Judicial Council to investigate allegations against the Bangladesh Election Commission.^[33] She attended a session, Women Representing Women, on the second day of the 'English JUbilee Lit Fest 2021' at Jahangirnagar University in March 2021.^[34] In October 2021, she signed a letter with 46 other academics condemning attacks on Hindu religious minorities in Bangladesh.^[35]

Azim wrote the introduction of the 2022 book Inherited Memories: Third-Generation Perspective on Partition in the East by Zubaan.^[36] She is part of the research team for The Gendered Price of Precarity: Workplace Sexual Harassment and Young Women's Agency which is an ongoing project of The British Academy.^[37]