Spouse(s) Sharmin Siddiky Role Economist Name Chowdhury Ahmed | Residence Dhaka, Bangladesh Children 2 | |
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Born 26 February 1970 (age 54)
Dhaka, Bangladesh ( 1970-02-26 ) Political party Bangladesh Nationalist Party Education M.A. in History and Economics Party Bangladesh Nationalist Party | ||
Alma mater Stony Brook University | ||
Chowdhury Irad Ahmed Siddiky is a Bangladeshi urban sociologist, historian, politician and anti-corruption activist who has served as Shadow Mayor of Dhaka since 2015.
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Early life
Chowdhury Irad Ahmed Siddiky was born in 1970 in one of Bangladesh's oldest landed feudal aristocratic families. His grandfather was the Zamindar of Baliadi, a hamlet near Dhaka in the Gazipur District of Bangladesh. He is the son of Chowdhury Tanbir Ahmed Siddiky, the founding treasurer of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the former Minister of State for Commerce (proti-montri) of Bangladesh. He is the great-grandson of Khan Bahadur Chowdhury Kazemuddin Ahmed Siddiky, the co-founder of the Assam-Bengal Muslim League during the British rule and one of the founders of the University of Dhaka
Education
Chowdhury Irad Ahmed Siddiky attended the St. Paul's School, Darjeeling, the oldest Anglican private school in Asia. He received his bachelor's degree in History from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and his master's degree in Economics from the University of Iowa in the United States.
Political career
Siddiky was a candidate for the Mayor of Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital city. In 2009 and 2012, Irad Siddiky ran for the Mayor of Dhaka as a candidate of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. In 2015 he contested the elections for the Mayor of Dhaka North.
Controversy
In a press conference to announce his candidature, Irad Siddiky alleged corruption and alleged bribery by the chairman of his own political party and Bangladesh's thrice elected prime minister and former leader of the opposition, Begum Khaleda Zia, who asked for a bribe of taka half-a-million in exchange for the ticket to run for the Mayor of Dhaka. The press conference resulted in the expulsion of Irad Siddiky and his father Chowdhury Tanbir Ahmed Siddiky, the founding treasurer of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Irad Siddiky's vow to fight against corruption by dynastic political parties in Bangladesh resulted in lawsuits against him. In 2009 a prominent army officer turned politician filed a lawsuit of five million taka against Irad Siddiky after Siddiky made allegations of corruption.
In 2016, when Siddiky wrote in the social media about covert hegemonic involvement of India in the internal political affairs of Bangladesh and revealed to the public about Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s covert collaboration with India to implement India’s economic and political interests in Bangladesh, lawsuits of defamation were filed against Siddiky throughout Bangladesh by supporters of the pro-Indian ruling party.