With the tick of 9:30am local time, first Bangladeshi woman mountaineer Nishat Majumder on Saturday climbed Mount Everest, world’s highest peak and hoisted the Bangladesh’s national flag at the top of the mountain.
Nishat is the third Bangladeshi to conquer the Everest.
Founder and president of Bangla Mountaineering and Trekking Club (BMTC) Enam Ul Haque confirmed that Nishat hoisted Bangladesh’s national flag at the top of the mountain, 8,850 meters above sea level, at 9:30am local time.
Nishat started her journey from Dhaka on April 6 and after three days reached Katmandu, Nepal. She started her expedition to the base camp of Mt. Everest from South side.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and leader of the opposition and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia congratulated Nishat for conquering Mt. Everest as the first woman of Bangladesh.
The 31-year-old accountant of WASA Nishat was accompanied by MA Muhith, a veteran Bangladeshi mountaineer, who also scaled it last year.
Both Nishat and Muhit are members of BMTC. They began their mission on April 9.
Nishat discovered her passion for hiking in 2003.
Since then, she has made a name for herself by becoming the first Bangladeshi woman to conquer three Himalayan peaks higher than 6,000 meters (3.7 miles).
Muhith reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 22 last year. He is the only Bangladeshi mountaineer who conquered Everest from both North and South side.
Earlier on May 24, 2010, Musa Ibrahim became the first victor to fly Bangladesh’s national flag on the globe’s summit.
In his reaction to Nishat’s achievement Musa Ibrahim said, “over the past couple of years, we were thinking of a woman who can climb Mt. Everest. Finally found Nishat and she was prepared for it. We are happy for her success.”
About preparation of mountaineering, he said, “physical preparation is necessary. But mental strength is very important as some problems create after day’s climbing.”
“It is good to have training. But anyone can go for climbing mountain irrespective of age and sex,” he added.
In the Plan’s ‘Because I am a Girl’ campaign blog on March 30, Nishat said, “Taking on this challenge as a woman, I realized just how important it is for girls to be empowered. Plan’s Because I am a Girl campaign is all about having a voice and being strong, so I wanted to do this to show girls around the world that nothing is impossible.”
Nishat was born in 1981 in Laksmipur. She came to Dhaka at the age of two. She has passed SSC from Bottomley Home High School and HSC from Shaheed Anwar Girls’ College and completed her graduation and post graduate course from Dhaka City College.
Her father Abdul Mannan is a businessman and mother Ashura Majumder is a homemaker. She is the second child of her parents. At present she has been living in a rented house at the Panthapath in the capital.
On the 50th anniversary of conquering Mt. Everest in 2003, Nishat conquered Keokradong (3172 ft), the highest mountain peak in Bangladesh, organized by Bangladesh Astronomical Association.
On the occasion of World Women Day in 2006, she again scaled the peak of Keokradong with Bangladesh Nari Ovijatri Dal, organised by BMTC.
In the same year in September, she took part with the Bangladesh Nari Ovijatri Dal, organized by BMTC in the trekking of Everest Base Camp (17,500 ft).
On May, 2007, with the finance of BMTC, Nishat underwent a foundation training from Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling and conquered the Himalayan Mera Peak (21830 ft) in September.
As part of the preparation of Everest expedition, she climbed the Himalayan Singuchuli peak (21328ft) in May, 2008. And later took part in Bangladesh-India joint expedition to climb Gangatri-1 (21000 ft) situated in North Kashmir, India.
She participated in the Bangladesh-India joint expedition to scale the world’s fifth highest peak Makalu (27865 ft) on April, 2009.
Last year in October, she made a successful expedition on a Himalayan peak Chekigo, organized by BMTC.
Junko Tabei was the first women Mt. Everest conqueror on May 16, 1975. Moreover, Stacy Allison, the first American woman, reached the top of Mt. Everest in 1988.
-With The Independent input
