Delwar Jahid

Life and education

Shan-e-Jahan Delwar Jahid was born in the village of Sarrabad of Belabo, a subdistrict of Norshingdi, Bangladesh, the son of Mohd Abdul Khaleque, a school teacher and business owner, and Dr. Anowara Begum, Doctor Of Homeopathic Medicine (HMB). He grew up in Comilla, Bangladesh. Between 1965 and 1970 he went to Comilla Iswar Pathsala Highschool, in Comilla, Bangladesh. During this time he was actively involved in social work. Under the roof of Zhilmil Sangha, an organization incorporated with the Government of Bangladesh under the department of social welfare, Delwar Jahid organized educational, sportive, and outdoor events for children and youth.

A year later in 1971 Delwar Jahid took part in the Bangladesh Liberation War, which brought the Independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan. In the same year between 1971 and 1972 Jahid went to Comilla Victoria Government College, in Comilla, Bangladesh, where he started to edit news and articles for the magazine Zhilmil Sangha.

Delwar Jahid visited the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh in the years from 1973-1976, where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts with Honours degree in the field of Political science. Utilizing his experiences from the participation in the Bangladesh Liberation War, he wrote a drama for theater about the war in 1976. A year later that play was directed by Debabrata Bhattacharya and performed in the metropolitan city Chittagong. During this creative phase Jahid continued to study for his degree as Master of Arts in Political science at the University of Chittagong in Bangladesh. He finished his degree with a dissertation about contemporary politics in Bangladesh.

Starting in 1978 Delwar Jahid got actively involved in voluntary activities, by organizing relations between existing not-for-profit organizations in the region of Comilla, and by founding new social welfare and cultural agencies for the Bangladesh Academy for Social Welfare in Comilla, Bangladesh.

From 1980 to 1982 Jahid studied for the Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) for 2 years at the Comilla Law College in Comilla, Bangladesh. During this time in 1981 Jahid founded Samajkantha, a weekly newspaper in Comilla, Bangladesh. The articles in his newspaper focused on news and commentary about democracy, human rights, socio-economic changes in Bangladesh, contemporary politics, and the different aspects of rural development. Jahid contributed with articles focusing on law and justice issues in connection to these topics.

In the same year Jahid joined the Comilla Pressclub in Comilla, Bangladesh, which he became president of the organization in 1985. He also founded and directed the Comilla Union of Journalists in 1986 with the aim to unite the journalists of Bangladesh in the fight for press freedom, and to give them support against legal and professional issues.

In 1987 Delwar Jahid became president of Jatiya Sangbadik Sangstha, a national organization for journalists for the duration of the year. Then in 1988 Jahid’s newspaper Samajkantha was closed by the government, until it reopened again in 1992. In the meanwhile in 1990 Jahid founded and directed the Bangladesh Foundation of Human Rights in Comilla, Bangladesh. Later on October 11, 1992 Delwar's Father Mohd Abdul Khaleque, who also wrote articles for Samajkantha, was attacked. The journalist Sandra Rodríguez wrote in an article, that the incident created fear for Jahid to continue his activities in the fight against press freedom.

During the time from 1992 to 1995 Jahid continued to organize public meetings to spark the discussion about the topic of human rights, and he wrote articles for various national newspapers in Bangladesh, including Ajker Kagoj and Daily Banglar Bani both located in Dhaka. Jahid's activities resulted in more threats from opponents, and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) wrote in their 1995 year in review, that Jahid was charged by the government authorities with deliberate insult of religious feelings.

In April 1995 Delwar Jahid fled from Bangladesh to Germany seeking asylum. From 1996 to 1999 Jahid joined the team of Dr. Guido Schmidt for Forschungsstelle Migration und Integration (FOMI) at the Pädagogische Hochschule in Freiburg, researching the issue of child labor in Bangladesh. In 1999 he left Germany after his request for asylum was declined, residing for a short time in France, and later that year in Spain.

From 2000 to 2002 Jahid wrote articles about contemporary human rights issues in Asia and North America for the Spanish newspaper Diario de Pontevedra and joined the University of Vigo doing research about fundamentalism and terrorism. Jahid was asked to give interviews as an authority about the subject.

In October 2001 Delwar Jahid's family joined him from Bangladesh, but in November 2002 Delwar relocated to Canada to overcome the language barrier. He sought to share his knowledge in a teaching position at a university and to obtain more knowledge about the western justice system.

Between 2007 and 2008 Jahid joined as a member of the board of directors for the John Howard Society of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. Later in 2008 he took his paralegal diploma at Reeves College, Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta in Canada along with a practicum at the University of Alberta under the faculty of law.

Today Delwar Jahid is engaged in writing articles and books about topics such as press freedom, human rights and contemporary politics under the background of his country Bangladesh with the aim to develop a sense of multiculturalism, pluralism as a political philosophy, and a culture of peace. He is also involved to integrate and strengthen the Bangladeshi culture into the multicultural background of Alberta, Canada by leading and assisting the non-profit organizations Bangladesh Heritage and Ethnic Society of Alberta (BHESA), Mahinur Jahid Memorial Foundation (MJMF) and Bangladesh PressClub Centre of Alberta (BPCA).

In September 2014 Jahid has been appointed a member of the executive council of The Bangladesh Freedom Fighter Association, Canada Unit.

Career

Delwar Jahid worked in several different professional fields, mainly as a journalist and as a researcher in academics.