Shamim Chowdhury

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| name = Shamim Chowdhury

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| native_name = শামীম চৌধুরী

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| birth_place = London, England

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| nationality = British

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| alma_mater = Queen Mary University
Birkbeck College
City University London

| occupation = Journalist

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| relatives = Muhammad Ataul Gani Osmani (great uncle)

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| awards = Winner of British-Bangladeshi Outstanding Achievement Award 2014

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Shamim Ara Chowdhury ({{langx|bn|শামীম আরা চৌধুরী}}) is an English television and print journalist.

Early life and education

Chowdhury was born into a Bengali Muslim Chowdhury family in England, United Kingdom. Her parents migrated from Sylhet,{{cite book |last1=Karim|first1=Mohammed Abdul|last2=Karim|first2=Shahadoth|title=British Bangladeshi Who's Who|url=http://www.bbwhoswho.co.uk/images/whos-who-2013.pdf|date=October 2013|publisher=British Bangla Media Group|page=75|access-date=1 September 2014}} East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) to the United Kingdom in the early 1970s.{{cite news |last=Chowdhury|first=Shamim|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/shamim-chowdhury/reconnecting-with-the-pas_b_3706682.html|title=Reconnecting With the Past – A British-Bangladeshi Returns to the Land of her Ancestors Shamim Chowdhury|work=HuffPost|date=5 August 2013|access-date=1 December 2013}} Muhammad Ataul Gani Osmani, the commander-in-chief of the Bengali liberation forces, is her great-uncle and grew up in the same household as her paternal grandfather, Azadur Rahman Chowdhury, who himself was the postmaster general of the Sylhet district.{{cite book |last1=Karim|first1=Mohammed Abdul|last2=Karim|first2=Shahadoth|title=British Bangladeshi Who's Who|url=http://www.bbwhoswho.co.uk/images/old_Publication.pdf|date=November 2014|publisher=British Bangla Media Group|page=11|access-date=1 December 2014}}

Chowdhury has a BSc from Queen Mary University, a MSc from Birkbeck College, and a post-graduate diploma in newspaper journalism from City University London.{{cite book |last1=Karim|first1=Mohammed Abdul|last2=Karim|first2=Shahadoth|title=British Bangladeshi Who's Who|url=http://www.bbwhoswho.co.uk/whoswho_09.pdf|date=October 2009|publisher=British Bangla Media Group|page=55|access-date=18 September 2011}}{{cite book|last1=Karim|first1=Mohammed Abdul|last2=Karim|first2=Shahadoth|title=British Bangladeshi Who's Who|url=http://www.bbwhoswho.co.uk/images/who%27%20who%20website%202010.pdf|date=October 2010|publisher=British Bangla Media Group|page=49|access-date=18 September 2011|archive-date=29 September 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110929082121/http://www.bbwhoswho.co.uk/images/who%27%20who%20website%202010.pdf|url-status=dead}}

Career

Chowdhury started out in print journalism and has written for a number of British national newspapers, including The Daily Express, The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, and The Independent, where she wrote a number of op-eds on a range of socio-political issues. She also used to have her own column in the English-language Bangladeshi newspaper, Bangla Mirror.

In 2007, Chowdhury started working for Al Jazeera English as a deputy news editor. Her later roles included news editor, reporter and producer. She was based mainly in London, but also worked occasionally in the main news centre in Doha, Qatar.{{cite web|url=http://www.asianmediaawards.com/judges3.html|title=Judges – Asian Media Awards|publisher=asianmediaawards|date=30 September 2013|access-date=1 December 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203011733/http://www.asianmediaawards.com/judges3.html|archive-date=3 December 2013|df=dmy-all}} She was involved in a wide range of stories for the channel, including the 2013 Ukraine crisis, the collapse of the Rana Plaza building complex in Bangladesh and the Bangladeshi elections. She was regarded as the channel's Bangladesh expert.

Since 2015, she has been working as a foreign correspondent for the Turkish television news channel, TRT World.{{Citation |title=TRT World's Asia Reporter on witnessing scale of the Rohingya refugee crisis |date=30 September 2017 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojOurQduh7o |publisher=TRT World |access-date=4 October 2017}} During this time she has reported from inside Syria, Iraq, South Korea, Jerusalem, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and many European countries. She also produced and reported an exclusive series of reports on Bangladesh's burgeoning economy, including a half-hour documentary of the subject.

Her interviews include former Prime Minister of Turkey Binali Yıldırım; Gowher Rizvi, the International Affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh; and Kamal Hossain, a founding leader of Bangladesh.

She has also written extensively for The Huffington Post on a wide range of socio-political issues.

Her previous television experience includes work at the BBC, ITN, and Sky News.

Chowdhury has taken part in current affairs and politics debates at The House of Lords and on live television discussion programmes.

Since October 2013, Chowdhury has been a judging panel member at the Asian Media Awards.{{cite news|last=Hartley|first=Sarah|url=http://www.prolificnorth.co.uk/2013/10/asian-media-awards-shortlist-unveiled-ahead-of-manchester-ceremony/|title=Asian Media Awards shortlist unveiled ahead of Manchester ceremony|publisher=Prolific North|date=2 October 2013|access-date=1 December 2013|archive-date=3 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203014858/http://www.prolificnorth.co.uk/2013/10/asian-media-awards-shortlist-unveiled-ahead-of-manchester-ceremony/|url-status=dead}}

Personal life

Chowdhury is a Muslim{{cite news |last=Chowdhury|first=Shamim|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/shamim-chowdhury/why-as-a-muslim-i-celebrate-christmas_b_2344084.html|title=Why as a Muslim I Celebrate Christmas|work=HuffPost|date=24 December 2012|access-date=1 December 2013}} and lives in West London. She has visited more than 65 countries including parts of the Middle East, Africa and Asia. On one occasion, she worked with a leading charity to help build a community centre in a remote part of Cambodia.

References

External links

{{Twitter|shamimjourno|Shamim Chowdhury}}
[https://www.linkedin.com/in/shamim-chowdhury-348143134/ Shamim Chowdhury] on LinkedIn
[https://web.archive.org/web/20110321093703/http://english.aljazeera.net/category/person/shamim-chowdhury Shamim Chowdhury] on Al Jazeera English
[http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/shamim-chowdhury/ Shamim Chowdhury] on The Huffington Post
[http://www.myactionaid.org.uk/schowdhury Shamim Chowdhury] on My Action Aid

Category:Living people

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:Alumni of Birkbeck, University of London

Category:Alumni of City, University of London

Category:Alumni of Queen Mary University of London

Category:English Muslims

Category:English people of Bangladeshi descent

Category:English women journalists

Category:English television journalists

Category:English newspaper editors

Category:English columnists

Category:English women columnists