Prof Hasna Begum no more

Eminent philosopher and Dhaka University (DU) teacher Prof Hasna Begum died from Covid-19 yesterday at Bangladesh Specialised Hospital, at 85.

Her daughter Prof Lala Rukh Selim of DU's sculpture department confirmed it to The Daily Star. Prof Hasna was earlier admitted to hospital on November 27, as she was suffering from acute shortness of breath.

"My mother died around 8am at Bangladesh Specialised Hospital. She was undergoing treatment for the past few days after being diagnosed with Covid-19," said Prof Lala.

She was buried in Mirpur Martyred Intellectuals' Graveyard yesterday.

Prof Hasna earned her BA (1968) and MA (1969) from DU and her PhD (1978) in moral philosophy from Monash University, where she was the first doctoral advisee of Australian philosopher Peter Singer.

The title of her doctoral dissertation was "Moore's Ethics: Theory and Practice". She was a prolific author, and translated several philosophical classics into Bengali.

Prof Hasna served as chair of DU's philosophy department from 1991 to 1994, and was appointed as Rokeya Chair at University Grants Commission (UGC) in 2010.

She was a board member of International Association of Bioethics from 1997 to 2005, and a member of the editorial board of Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics.