The Department of Law at IUB has welcomed six new full-time faculty members, bringing the department’s total number of full-time faculty to 18 and the number of faculty members with PhDs to 11 — the highest among law departments of private universities in Bangladesh. The new full-time faculty members are:

Muhammad Mahbubur Rahman, PhD, with 20 years of teaching experience at universities including the University of Dhaka, joined IUB as a Professor in January 2024. He received his PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, in 2013. His research interests focus on criminal law, legal theories, human rights, and law and society. He is a member of the Ethical Review Committee of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b). He has served as an elected member of the Executive Council of the Asian Society of International Law (2015-2023) and as an expert member of the National Inquiry Committee on Violence against Women and Children & Rape, National Human Rights Commission, Bangladesh (2021-2022). He is the author of Criminal Sentencing in Bangladesh: From Colonial Legacies to Modernity (Leiden/Boston: Brill Nijhoff, 2017) and co-author of Protection of Minorities: Regimes, Norms and Issues in South Asia (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012) and Protection of Children in Conflict with the Law in Bangladesh (Dhaka: Save the Children UK, 2008).

Md. Monjur Hasan, PhD, with 12 years of teaching and research experience at universities including the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Maritime University, Bangladesh, joined IUB as an Assistant Professor of Law in January 2024. He received his PhD from the School of Law, Ocean University of China, in 2019. His research interests focus on the Law of the Sea, International Law, Human Rights at Sea, and Law and Climate Change. He conducted his postdoctoral research at Ankara University National Centre for the Sea and Maritime Law, Turkey. He is a PhD dissertation reviewer at the University of New England, Australia, and a visiting scholar at Ankara University, Turkey. He has co-edited Maritime Law Compendium (BSMRMU, 2021) and reviewed Reciprocity and China’s Transboundary Waters: The Law of International Watercourses (Routledge, 2020). Dr. Hasan is an alumnus of the Yeosu Academy of the Law of the Sea, South Korea, and the Centre for International Law of the National University of Singapore for the Law of the Sea and Climate Change program. He is also a regular reviewer for Springer Nature, Taylor and Francis, Elsevier, Brill, and Routledge.

Md. Toriqul Islam, PhD, a legal academic since 2007, joined IUB as an Assistant Professor of Law in January 2024. He completed his PhD in Data Protection Law from the University of Malaya in 2021 and obtained both his Bachelor of Laws and Master of Laws degrees from the Islamic University, Bangladesh. His expertise encompasses data protection law, privacy law, cybersecurity law, and law and technology. Dr. Islam serves on the editorial boards of the Indonesian Journal of Law and Society and the Lampung Journal of International Law, Indonesia. He has reviewed papers for several prestigious journals, including International Data Privacy Law (Oxford University Press). He has provided consultancy services twice to the European Union Delegation in Dhaka, focusing on comparative analysis between the EU GDPR and Bangladesh’s Draft Data Protection Act 2022. Dr. Islam actively contributed to the development phase of the Draft Personal Data Protection Bill 2023 of Bangladesh through five extensive submissions: two in support of the EU Dhaka Delegation, two for Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), and one in a personal capacity.

Sharin Shajahan, PhD, joined IUB as an Assistant Professor of Law in June 2024. Dr. Sharin completed her Bachelor of Laws from the University of Dhaka. She was one of the first mooters to represent Bangladesh and the University of Dhaka in international moot court competitions, including the regional Henry Dunant Memorial Moot Court Competition and the Asia Cup Moot Court Competition in 2007 in Japan. In 2010, she was awarded the Australian Leadership Award to complete a Master of Arts in Human Rights from the Centre for Human Rights Education at Curtin University in Australia. She earned her PhD from Murdoch University in Australia. She worked as an Assistant Professor at the Asian University for Women (AUW) for five years and completed a postdoctoral fellowship from KREA University in India. She received the Cornell Climate Online Fellowship and the Demographic Health Survey (DHS) Fellowship from USAID.

Rehnuma Binte Mamun joined IUB as a Lecturer of Law in January 2024. She is a lawyer by training, a law teacher by profession, and a researcher by passion, with over 13 years of experience in all three capacities. She has taught at universities including Eastern University and Jahangirnagar University, and currently at the Independent University, Bangladesh. Ms. Mamun completed her undergraduate studies at Stamford University, Bangladesh, and obtained her LLM from Eastern University. She completed her second masters in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Dhaka. Her research expertise and interests focus on criminology, criminal law, the criminal justice system, decolonization, terrorism, legal and technical research, and refugee law. She reviewed the Bangladesh Chapter of the book Freedom of Speech in International Law (Oxford University Press, 2024), edited by Amal Clooney and Lord David Neuberger. Her academic articles have been published in prestigious law journals and online platforms.

Maimuna Syed Ahmed joined IUB as a Lecturer of Law in January 2024. She received her Masters in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) as a Chevening Scholar. Previously, she was awarded Highest Distinction in an LLM degree from Bangladesh University of Professionals, and High Distinction in an LLB (Hons.) degree from BRAC University. She has worked for over four years in advocacy-related units in leading national legal aid and human rights organizations such as Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) and Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST). During her time at ASK, she was actively involved in drafting compliance and progress reports on the human rights situation in Bangladesh under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 2019, as well as drafting the assessment of the National Human Rights Commission, Bangladesh. Besides working as a lecturer, she also continues her role as a founder and executive committee member of Map of Justice, an online-based research and advocacy platform. Her research interests focus on human rights, the criminal justice system, and international law.