Rashid Askari

Askari was born in Askarpur, Mithapukur, Rangpur in erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in 1965 to M. A. Mannan, an English teacher and headmaster, and Setara Begum, a housewife. Rashid passed the secondary school and higher secondary certificate examinations in 1980 and 1982. He "obtained Honours and Master's degrees in English from Dhaka University with distinction, and a PhD in Indian English Literature from the University of Poona".[4]

Askari joined Islamic University, Kushtia as a lecturer in English in 1990. He became a professor in 2005 and was head of the English department more than once. Currently, he is the dean of the Faculty of Arts.[5] He served with King Khalid University - the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a professor of English for five years (2008-2013). Askari later became a writer. His "debut as a writer was marked in 1996 by his book The Dying Homeland. Until recently, he has authored seven books and edited three volumes of English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore (2012-2013) published in commemoration of the 150th birth anniversary of the poet. He has also written a large number of articles, essays and newspaper columns on a great variety of themes ranging from national to international and colonial to postcolonial, which have been published at home and abroad".[6] He is the editor of Bangladesh's first multilingual international literary magazine—The Archer.[7] He was elected the Secretary General of Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers' Association for 2014.[8] He was "made new chairman of folklore studies department of the Islamic University in Kushtia".[9] Askari has been nominated as a part-time member of the University Grants Commission of Bangladesh (UGC).[10] He is working as a member of "the international publication and translation sub-committee" under "Bangabandhu's Birth Centenary Celebration National Implementation Committee" [11] and translated Sheikh Mujib's 10 January speech delivered at the Race Course into English.[12] He also translated in English Sheikh Mujib's UN speech on 25 September 1974.[13]

He is a peer reviewer and a Quality Assurance (QA) expert nominated by the Quality Assurance Unit of the Government of Bangladesh.[14] "Askari regularly writes columns in various newspapers".[4] "The areas of his academic interest include Modern and Postmodern Fiction, Colonial and Postcolonial Literature, South-Asian Writing in English, Literary Theories and Creative Writing".[15] In the recent past "Askari has been accorded gold medal for his contribution to advancement of education sector" in Bangladesh.[16][17] He has also received "Janonetri Sheikh Hasina Award 2019" for his outstanding contribution to education sector,[18] and "won the Dhaka University Alumni News Award 2020".[19]

Askari had a flair for creative writing since his school days.[20] An unsigned profile in The Kushtia Times stated that Askari writes "both Bengali and English with equal ease and efficiency".[21] Bangladeshi novelist and critic Syed Manzoorul Islam notes:

He writes witty, racy stories with surprisingly serious undertones. Picking real-life events from the remote areas and the marginal people of the country and weaving them into various fictional forms are the hallmarks of his storytelling. Though not new in a ground-breaking way, his stories are both intense and original. The overall tone of his language is gently sarcastic.[22]

Askari has demonstrated enough artistic talent to come up with fiction in English, which must be a source of inspiration for many of us".[23] In his short story collection Nineteen Seventy One and Other Stories(2011) "Rashid Askari speaks of a long-ago war, revisiting the age of brutality we emerged free of through beating back the denizens of darkness".[24] "The book contains a dozen of mind-blowing stories mostly based on realistic events that took place either in faraway villages or the bustling metropolis in Bangladesh. However, the regional fictional representation does not evade universal significance."[25] The book has been translated into French Language and also into Hindi".[26] His short story "Virus" was published in the Daily Sun's Eid Special 2017 and "A slice of sky" has been published in the Contemporary Literary Review India (CLRI), a peer-reviewed , internationally refereed and high impact factor journal.[27] Askari wrote the intellectual biography of the country's founding president Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,  which is "based on authentic background information, factual accounts of events, historical research and clear elegant prose".[28] He edited the English version of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s book My Father, My Bangladesh published in Amar Ekushey Book Fair 2021.[29] "Sharp and minute detailed description of human behavior, and pictorial presentation of events and settings in his carefully chosen words demonstrate Rashid Askari's mastery in story writing/telling," says the President of the International Consortium for Social Development and Professor of Social Work at Charles Sturt University, NSW, Australia, Manohar Pawar.[30] "There is a postcolonial undertone in the author’s approach by way of debunking the ugly face of the petty-colonial power in the saddle after 1947".[3] "Like most postcolonial writers, his choice of English makes him at once an insider and an outsider – a member of the social elite, who writes about the subaltern."[31] Askari's "sensible uses of stylistics can make it pure theory or theory equal."[32]

• "The Story of an Inspirational Figure"- a review by Askari of the biography of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman by Syed Badrul Ahsan published by the Embassy of Bangladesh, Washington D.C. News on 15 Jan 2014.
• A review of his book "Nineteen Seventy One" published by Rubric Publishing, New Delhi, India in 2019  has been published in the March–April 2019 edition of Indian Literature published by Sahitya Akademi, India.[63]
• A review of the book "Nineteen Seventy One" published by the International Journal of Community and Social Development, written by Manohar Pawar, Professor of Social Work at Charles Sturt University, NSW, Australia, and the President of the International Consortium for Social Development.[30]
• A review of the book--The Making of Mujib (2022) has been published in the Daily Star on June 9, 2022.[64]

• Askari has been awarded the Oitijjo Gold Medal 2019 by Bangladesh Folklore Research Centre of Rajshahi University for his contribution to the fields of literature and education.[65]
• He has also received "Janonetri Sheikh Hasina Award 2019" for his outstanding contribution to education sector.[66]
• Rashid Askari won the Dhaka University Alumni News Award 2020[67]

• "Curriculum Vitae: Rashid Askari" (PDF). Islamic University, Kushtia. Retrieved 12 November 2013.

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