My Chosen Words

About the Book

My Chosen Words is the author’s honest confession of how she persisted to rise above poverty, hunger, and isolation as a professional immigrant woman. Even in the darkest days of her life, she could see the sun rise. Her conviction and her devotion to research enabled her to contribute to the scientific world. This powerful, emotional, and astonishing story will touch the hearts of women, immigrants, and young women pursuing higher studies and research in science. Ferial’s personal narrative depicts how she overcame adversity to emerge from a dead end and find creative ways to develop her identity as a Canadian and secure a place in the global society. She tumbled over many hurdles in her twenties, juggling her role as a wife, mother, and graduate student in the early sixties in Canada.

About the Author

Ferial Imam Haque is a retired scientist who lives in Ottawa. She has traveled to many countries since her early childhood. She has rich and diverse experiences, specializing in science and society. Through her powerful experiences she has contributed not only to the scientific community but also to the well-being of women and children. Her conviction is that women are people and should have their individual identities, which can be achieved through education. She was born to parents who were educated in the nineteen thirties in British India. Her father was a physicist, and her mother was a philosopher. She was awarded her PhD degree in chemistry by the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, in the Summer Convocation of 1970. She emigrated to Ottawa, Canada, on July 1972, having survived the liberation movement of Bangladesh. It was a rough journey to prove her identity as a scientist and forensic scientist. She is dedicated to living in harmony in a society of diverse people and seeking to achieve a common understanding to appreciate and accept the many ethnicities of the people of Canada. Her objective is to continue to document her rich international experiences in education and diversity as a senior citizen and a woman in the twenty-first century. Ferial Imam is the daughter of remarkable parents who were both educationist in British India. She grew up and spent her life in the public eye at home and abroad. She has traveled and lived in many countries as a student and researcher. People around her have observed and shared her successes and hard times. Hers is a story of triumph and turmoil while traveling through the many phases of her life: childhood, married life, maturity, depicting her vision as a daughter, sister, wife, student, scientist, and mother. She offers touching impressions of emigrating to Canada, leaving behind the tragedies of the battlefield. Beginning a new life as an immigrant professional woman in 1972 with sad memories was a challenge in Ottawa. It was not easy. Her key role as a professional immigrant woman in the seventies was to savor some of the taste and flavor of multiculturalism in Ottawa, Canada’s capital. Being a member of many groups in Ottawa, Ferial has introduced and implemented a new vision of who women are. With diversity and tolerance, she welcomes new Canadians from many corners of the world.