Rashida Alam

Rashida Alam (née Rahman), a beloved figure in the Washington-area Bangladeshi community, retired Federal government civil servant, and much-loved mother, wife, and sister, has passed away. She was 84 and living independently at the Walton Wood senior living community in Ashburn, Virginia. Rashida was born in 1934 in Kolkata, India during the time of British rule and, after independence/partition, grew up and was educated in Dhaka, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Her father and grandfather were prominent members of the British Civil Service in Bengal, with her father later a judge for the district and sessions courts in East Pakistan. Rashida was one of eleven siblings (ten sisters and one brother), all but one of whom obtained a university degree, most completing graduate-level education. She studied physics and received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Dhaka University, later obtaining a master’s degree in nuclear physics from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. It was at Dhaka University that she met her future husband of 46 years, Syed Nurul Alam, whom she married in 1959. Over the next 12 years, they lived variously in East Pakistan, Germany, and Canada, tugged by academic and professional opportunities in the West. Although pulled back home by the desire to be near family and raise their three children in their native culture, the couple settled in the US in 1971 as refugees from the civil war in Pakistan that would create Bangladesh. Initially, the family was located in Iowa City, where Rashida obtained yet another degree: a master’s in computer science at the University of Iowa. After moving to the Greater Washington region in 1978, she then worked as an IS/IT manager, managing computer operations at the Food and Drug Administration, and later at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, retiring in 2002. Though never a vocal activist, Rashida was a pioneer in many respects, breaking gender barriers studying physics in Pakistan in the 1950s, by obtaining a degree in computer science in the 1970s, and climbing the civil service ladder in the 1980s and ‘90s (all the while wearing her colorful saris, a habit she only gave up after retiring). In parallel with her professional and academic accomplishments, she raised her three children, who graduated from Princeton, MIT and Columbia, respectively. And for many years, she was a committed caretaker to her husband, who had multiple chronic medical illnesses that eventually led to his passing in 2005. She was active in her community, particularly in the Bangladeshi circle, within which she was known to many as “Rani Apa” (Rani being her nickname and Apa, being an affectionate and respectful Bengali language word for older sister). She is a past Treasurer of the Washington Area Bangladeshi Association of America and previously co-chaired the North American Bangladesh Conference. She was also active in the broader community, creating and leading Asia-Pacific affinity groups within both the FDA and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In later years she committed many hours to building ties and support systems for seniors in McLean, Virginia. She is survived by her three children, Runa Alam of London, United Kingdom, John Alam of Boston, Massachusetts and Tony Alam of Ashburn, Virginia; 5 grandchildren; four sisters in Bangladesh; two sisters and her brother in the US; and one sister in Canada.