Shusmita Amin Chowdhury

Shusmita Amin Chowdhury (Dina) Chowdhurani
Born	23 December 1966 Dhaka, East Pakistan
Died	5 December 2022 Dhaka, Bangladesh
Nationality	Bangladeshi
Occupation(s)	Poet, academic, socialite, singer
Spouse	Kamran Hossain Chowdhury
Children	Umran Chowdhury
Relatives	Abdur Raquib Khandaker

Shusmita Amin Chowdhury (née Khan; December 23, 1966 – December 5, 2022) was a Bangladeshi socialite, writer, poet, teacher, and singer. She was the wife of parliamentarian Kamran Hossain Chowdhury. Her son Umran Chowdhury is a lawyer, writer and historian. She was widely known by her nickname Dina. Chowdhury excelled in her studies in English literature at Dhaka University and was a trained singer from the prestigious Chhayanaut institution.

Early life

Shusmita as a toddler with her father at a car rally near Dhaka in 1969

Shusmita Amin Khan was born in 1966 in Dhaka, East Pakistan to Nurul Amin Khan and Nadira Amin Khan. She was their eldest daughter. Her father was an executive in Pakistan National Oil who rose to become the managing director of its Bangladeshi successor Jamuna Oil Company; he also became a director of the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation. Her mother was the daughter of a judge. Her grandmother gave her the nickname Dina after Queen Dina of Jordan. Shusmita attended the Holy Cross school where her classmates included Tania Amir, Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, and Nihad Kabir. She stood first in her class in Dhaka University where she studied English literature. She obtained her BA and MA in English literature. Her father studied history in Dhaka University where his batchmates included Rashed Khan Menon and Matiur Rahman.

Her paternal Khan family claim Persian ancestry. The Khan family has an old mansion, Osim Manzil, which was built in 1937 in Munshiganj. They were a prominent Muslim family of the Bikrampur region of Bengal. Her uncles included Nurul Momen Khan (Mihir), the first director general of National Security Intelligence; A. R. Khandaker, 8th Inspector General of Police; and Niaz Mahmood Khan (Bobby), a veteran of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. Her brother Moin Hasan Khan attended boarding school in India with Sajeeb Wazed; while another brother Shayan S. Khan is a journalist.

Marriage

Shusmita with her husband Kamran H. Chowdhury at the Taj Mahal

Benazir Bhutto and Nusrat Bhutto with the Chowdhury family in Jeddah in 1996 (Shusmita is seen standing second from left).

Shusmita and Kamran with their first son Umran

She was known for her beauty and elegance. She married Kamran H. Chowdhury, a member of parliament, in 1989. Her husband was a pro-Western, moderate Bengali Muslim nationalist. In 1990, they gave birth to their first son, Umran. In 1997, their second son, Ayman, was born with a profound hearing impairment. Throughout the 1990s and the early 2000s, she and her husband were prominent in Dhaka's high society social scene, especially among the diplomatic corps. They mingled with world leaders, including the prime ministers of India and Pakistan; the first lady of the United States; and were hosted as royal guests in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Her husband was a member of Bangladesh's parliamentary standing committee on foreign relations.

Singer and writer

She was trained at Chhayanaut as a vocalist. She was an exponent of Tagore songs. She wrote poetry and book reviews, which were published in The Daily Star and its Rising Stars edition. Her critique of Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things was published in The Daily Star. She also taught English literature at several schools and universities, including Scholastica, IUB, and SUB.

See also

• Socialite