Kaberi Gayen is a Bangladeshi academic, author, and social activist known for her outspoken views on the oppression of minorities and gender inequality in Bangladesh.[1]
Gayen was born in a Bengali Kayastha family in Gopalganj, Bangladesh. She did her schooling from Barisal Government Women's College, and travelled to Dhaka in 1989 to obtain an honours degree in mass communication and journalism from the University of Dhaka - for which she was awarded the Dil Noshin Khanam Gold Medal. She then completed her master's from the same university in 1990, thereafter travelling to Edinburgh to obtain a PhD from Edinburgh Napier University in 2004. Her thesis was on Modelling the Influence of Communications on Fertility Behaviour of Women in Rural Bangladesh.
Gayen is a vocal human rights activist who has spoken for the rights of the Hindu, Christian, and Atheist minorities, such as the atheist blogger Asif Mohiuddin. She has campaigned for justice in the Bangladeshi Judiciary, and is vocal against religious extremism and government oppression.[5][6][7] She has supported The International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh.[8] She has protested against the arrest of Labour rights activists and spoken against the issues of gender-inequality and sexual assault prevalent in the Bangladeshi society.[9][10]
She was one of the ten people who received death threats from Islamist terrorists Ansarullah Bangla Team. The List included HT Imam - advisor to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Vice-Chancellor of Dhaka University, and Professor Muhammed Zafar Iqbal. The Militant group had also admitted to the murder of blogger Avijit Roy.[11]
Gayen, Kaberi (2009). Modelling Influences of Communication: A Study of the Fertility Behaviour of Women in Rural Bangladesh. Koln, Germany: LAMBERT Academic Publishing. ISBN978-3838304700.
Construction of Women in the War Films of Bangladesh (Muktizuddher Cholochchitre Naree Nirman). Dhaka, Bangladesh: Bengal Publications Limited. 2013.
Capabilities and Vulnerabilities of Women Garment Workers of Bangladesh. Bangladesh: University Press Limited. 2015. (in the process of printing)
Raeside, R. and Gayen. K. 2005. "The Experience of Elderly", published in the Proceedings of XXV IUSSP International Population Conference 2005, Tours, France. Also available: Princeton University