Exploring stories of heroic daughters

To celebrate International Day of the Girl Child, HerStory Foundation hosted a live reading and signing event of their book, Her Stories: Adventures of Supergirls by Amiya, in collaboration with Bookworm Bangladesh in North End Coffee Roasters at Dhanmondi.

HerStory Foundation carries the mission of empowering women and girls through the arts, story-telling and capacity building. The foundation creates opportunities to commission and feature works by female artists and writers. They promote female creatives and help make connections between mentors and students, creating and growing a network of compassionate support.

The book,Her Stories: Adventures of Supergirls by Amiya, is a reminder of the sacrifices of both the renowned and the unsung heroines of Bengal and present-day Bangladesh. Told over the span of 1000 years, the book features illustrated stories of 21 women including Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, Pritilata Waddedar, Sufia Kamal, Sheikh Hasina and others, who have laid the way for others and furthered the cause of women empowerment through their contributions totheir respective fields. The English version of the book was launched on the second day of the Dhaka Literary Festival 2017, while the Bangla version came out this year. The project is a collaboration of over 30 university researchers, illustrators and writers.

The book reading and signing event widely saw children as well as their parents and loved ones in attendance. The children chose the tales they wanted to hear, which were spiritedly narrated by Sifat Zaman, one of the writers of the book and the program officer of HerStory Foundation. Towards the end, the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?," was asked to everyone present. Ranging from a ninja to an airline pilot, the children's answers included professions of all sorts, with some of them even determined to take on multiple roles at a time. Other, more older members of the audience talked about their life, work and path to realising their dreams. "The ideabehind our event was to get children to start thinking about and believing in dreaming big," says Zareen Mahmud Hosein, the founder and executive director of HerStory Foundation. After the live reading session, everyone gathered to get their copies of the book signed by the authors and illustrators present.

HerStory Foundation frequently organises reading circles at various schools, with a focus on those for underprivileged children in the country. They have training programmes, through which teachers are enabled to use the book as a tool to not just teach the children English but also educate them about the values of respect, diversity and empowerment.

The second book from Herstory Foundation will particularly focus on success stories of women in science, technology, engineering and math, weaving a narrative of female friendships and how women have inspired one another.