Rubana Haque

Rubana Huq (born 9 February 1964) is a Bangladeshi businesswoman Entrepreneur, Poet, Columnist,
Speaker. She is the current managing director of Mohammadi Group, a Bangladeshi conglomerate. She
was featured in BBC 100 Women in 2013 and 2014. In 2019, she became the first elected female
President of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA).

Early life and upbringing

From her teenage days she was a strong fighter. She came from a very moderate middle-class cultural
family, for self-independence she started earning from age 15 by doing tuitions. According to her an
interview in “Machranga Television” she objectified those tragedies fights of today’s the “Rubana
Haque”. Her mother plays a very very important role of making her this ideology.

Education Background:

Rubana always was a nerd but not that confined nerd rather she upheld herself to a vast broad stream.
She was educated at Viqarunnisa Noon School and Holy Cross College. She completed her master's in
English literature from East West University in 2008 after a huge gap of 20 years from regular formal
education. Rubana was so determined about doing PhD, in spite of her busy multi-tasking life she did
her PhD from Jadavpur University in 2018 on “Rights workshop, Agent of Change”.

Career

Starting a news presenter, she became CEO of TV Southasia (from 2006 to 2010). She is the "accidental"
Managing Director at Mohammadi Group (1996 – till now) and first PhD degree holder President of
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA).

Today her company owns eight factories and employs 9000 men and women making garments for
export. She is among only a handful of female entrepreneurs in the clothing trade in Bangladesh and
wants to see more women leading change in the industry as it recovers from the tragedy of the Rana
Plaza factory collapse in 2013.

Personality trait:

Rubana has a strong authentic personality harmonically combined with humbleness boldness and
sacrifice mentality. She always tried to make things done without harming majority. This expresses her
caring attitude. Rubana always maintained her strict ethics and prefers hardworking. According to her
our generation is a “short cut” generation, which is the one thing she discourages about us. Moreover,
she always worships the “youth” in a human mind and always expresses a positive and optimistic
attitude toward everything.
Ideology:

Positivity and giving best afford is her basic ideology and base of success can be said. In most of her
interviews she emphasizes on family. The idea and bonding of family is the concept she prioritizes most.
Her mother used to say,

“Never breakdown during the stormy night, let the emotional things come after the survival”

Rubana Haque held these words with heart, after all the tragedies of her life she’s still standing strong.
Rubana have a collectivistic mentality always determined to serve. Her independence and revolutionary
thoughts opinions creates a vibrant personality which reflect through every words she speaks.

Rubana and women independence:

“Being a woman, I believe my attitude towards the challenges faced by women workers will be different
and more empathetic.”

Rubana Huq has actively worked towards empowering women– advocating for women’s economic
independence, voicing challenges regarding female garment workers’ rights. She hopes to bring her
perspective and provide solutions to improve women’s conditions. Over 5000 women work in factories
managed by Rubana Huq; and believes that these women are slowly changing their own narrative
through their work. Always humble, she acknowledges that there is still a long way to go. Most of these
women are still not truly emancipated in their own lives, but the work continues. The group exports one
and a half million pieces of ready-made garments every month of which women manufacture 75%. She
sits in the board of Asian University for Women, an international institution, where 150 garment
workers are enrolled in the graduate program. She has launched a program named “She for She”, where
she suggests women to stand by each other.

Great Achievements

Rubana is the Managing Director of Mohammadi Group and has been in the position for the last twenty-
two years. Starting with exporting readymade garments, her group diversified its business into software,
digital distribution, real estate, power generation and entertainment. Apart from being a celebrated
entrepreneur, she is also a prolific writer, a poet and a philanthropist. In 2013 and 2014, she was in
BBC’s list of 100 outstanding women. Her accolades include wining the SAARC literary award in 2006.
She has also launched a literary magazine called Monsoon letters along other Bangladeshi writers.
Significances to learn

Rubana suggests our generation saying,

“Be restless. Restlessness creates an urgency that helps you go to the next level. If you are restless, you
are always ready to fight on.So, be restless to go to the next level, be restless to read the next book, be
restless to innovate a new idea, be restless to help the next person. Be restless to become a new you.
Never be satisfied and complicit”.

She is truly an inspiration for all of us. Here’s to more women being in positions of power and striving to
improve women’s lives collectively. We look forward to a day where a woman attaining a leadership
position in Bangladesh won’t be the reason behind headlines everywhere, but rather it would be norm.
her life teaches being positive and hardworking any ambition can be learnt.