Rabeya Khatun

Rabeya Khatun (27 December 1935 – 3 January 2021) was a Bangladeshi novelist. She wrote over 50 novels and more than 400 short stories. Her works also include essays, research, religious history and travelogues. She was awarded Bangla Academy Literary Award in 1973, Ekushey Padak in 1993 and Independence Day Award in 2017 by the Government of Bangladesh. Khatun died of cardiac arrest on 3 January 2021 at her residence in Gulshan, Dhaka. Khatun was born on 27 December 1935 to Maulavi Mohammad Mulluk Chand and Hamida Khatun in Bikrampur in the then Bengal Presidency, British India (now in Munshiganj District, Bangladesh). She was the second of their three children. Khatun grew up in the Shantinagar area in Dhaka. She passed the entrance examination from Armanitola School in 1948. On 23 July 1952, she married Fazlul Haque (1930–1990). He was the editor of the Cinema magazine. He directed President, the first film for children in Bangladesh.