Special invitation of Professor Katrina and a turning point

Special invitation to Professor Katrina and a turning point
Ismat Jahan Nishu
Asian University for Women

19th October, 2009. I had a special invitation to my humanities professors.
“I do not understand the logic of humanities!”, I wrote in the last mail to my humanities professors. Humanities is an illogical discipline, that is what this sentence mean. I wanted to let them know that humanities was a bullshit discipline. The core message of my e-mail was, “I hate humanities, so do not dare to bother me about it.”
I applied every possible methods to avoid this meeting.
Alas! Professor Katrina’s strong counter arguments made me see them at 3 pm with my over-beating heart. Professor wrote me, “Being uncomfortable is part of life-long learning process.”
When I went there, Professor Katrina praised my braveness of expressing my feelings. She explained me why raising women’s voice was essential in this contemporary world. However, she suggested being very professional to express my thoughts because if I respect people throughout our conversation, no matter how irrational my proposal is, they will take some time to reconsider my proposal.
She asserts that what young leaders, like me, need are to set their goals and not stopping working hard until they reach there. The very initial step of letting people know your survival, according to Professor Katrina, is raising your own voice.
I raised my voice, against Eve-teasing. My feature against Eve-teasing has been published in the most popular Bangladeshi newspaper, Prothom Alo, in 23rd May, 2010. After publication of this article police took action against it.
I have been writing in this newspaper since 4 months to raise my voice as well as motivating people to raise their own voices. I believe, when people have self-estimate and self-respect, they are clear enough about their strengths and weaknesses to raise voices from their positions. Though we all have gotten our own voices, not all of us has a platform to raise our voices. Therefore, we need someone special who always holds our hand and teach how to increase acceptance of our philosophy.
Professor Katrina urged me to be a great dreamer by making my dreams come true throughout hard work. Right now, I am raising my voice in newspapers against social injustices. This is all about making my dreams coming true, gaining self-satisfaction.
Thank you Katrina for motivating me finding out my field of interests and inspiring me doing hard work to get my dreams come true by holding my hands.