Rafida Bonya Ahmed (also known as Bonya Ahmed and Rafida Ahmed; born 1969)[1] is a Bangladeshi-American who is simultaneously a writer, free-spirited blogger and humanitarian activist, and a former IT official in the United States.[2] In 2020, she founded the educational channels Think Bangla and Think English on YouTube.[3]
Ahmed met her husband, Avijit Roy, through their writing on Mukto-Mona, the first online platform for Bengali speaking freethinkers, atheists, and secular bloggers and writers founded by Avijit. This group started the first celebration of Darwin Day in Bangladesh.[2] Mukto-Mona was internationally recognised in 2015 and received The BOBS jury award.[4] Ahmed wrote Bibortoner Path Dhore ("Along the Evolutionary Path", 2007). She is one of the moderators of Mukto-Mona.
Ahmed speaking at the 2017 International Conference on Free Expression and Conscience London
Ahmed has a daughter, Trisha Ahmed, from her first marriage. Trisha wrote an article with her stepfather Avijit for the Free Inquiry magazine about imprisoned secularist bloggers.[5] Ahmed was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2011 and went into remission after extensive treatment.[6]
On 26 February 2015, Ahmed and Roy were attacked by machete-wielding Islamic extremists while they were visiting Dhaka on a book signing trip. They were attacked in the middle of the street at a very crowded book fair. Roy died after he was taken to the hospital and Ahmed was gravely injured.[7][8]
Ahmed decided to take a leave of absence from her job as a senior director at a credit bureau in the US after the attack. She started working with the humanist associations in Europe and the US to raise awareness about the attacks on the secular intellectuals in Bangladesh by Islamic fundamentalists,[6] and in July that year gave the British Humanist Association's Voltaire Lecture.[9]
On 20 April 2018, Ahmed gave a TEDx Talk in Exeter, explaining how she recovered from the 2015 terrorist attack that left her husband dead and herself physically and emotionally scarred for life.[12]
In 2019, Bonya Ahmed co-founded Think, a charity that creates Bangla and English educational videos with more languages to come in the future. Think's goal is to spread scientific knowledge and humanist values all around the world.[13]
Bonya Ahmed with her life partner Terry Inge at a National Geographic expedition to Galapagos Islands.[14]
Bonya Ahmed lives with her life partner, Terry Inge, in the US since 2022.[15]
Works and activism
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