Dr. Zeba un Naher, A Dedicated Medical Professional Focused on Science and Technology

Dr. Zeba un Naher offers well-developed knowledge of medical science as she is a dedicated medical professional and teacher with Laboratory experience in Biochemistry. To reach this stability took an eventful journey. Since April 2019 She has been working as assistant professor at School of medicine Maldives National University. She is not only one of the first three faculties but also one of the pioneer researchers of school of medicine.  Before that from 2014 she worked as a consultant in biochemistry at the IGMH Department of Laboratory Medicine. She has worked with the Maldivian Red Crescent (MRC) as a volunteer since 2017 to present in various important capacities. As the most important engagement with MRC, she supported information dissemination and contact tracing during the lockdown phase of Covid 19 operations. Her commitment to the operation was remarkable and MRC mentioned “MRC grateful for the service she offered including the translation service as part of the Covid 19 information dissemination operation…. Dr. Zeba Un Naher is an outstanding individual with many admirable qualities. She is well known for her positive attitude.  She is well respected throughout the organization for being the “go-to” person for all migrant health issues, and a resource person with a wide range of knowledge”. Dr. Zeba very recently attached with MMWM also.

Her young life is not exceptional than thousands of Bangladeshi Girls' motivation to pursue a career in medicine, obstacles they face in real life, such as arranged marriage and pregnancy, their predisposition to select a limited number of specialties, and circumstances that put them in danger of quitting Dream. But her fortunate dream had a north star to keep her focused on goal.

Like other women Dr. Zeba has been trying to break away from norms and standards set by society. Under untold pressure she has to take a job which not maintaining minimum hygiene or ethical policy. Whole life is a story about marching for equal rights and fighting for a rightful place in the world. It was not very easy to keep engaged with the lab full time along with male colleagues with dignity. To get a job in university you should have merit and for better position and to have sustainability in a male dominating society you need to prove that you are not only equal but also better than your male colleague and you have to update with modern technology, she is a survivor of workplace bullying and even pregnancy discrimination.

Fewer publications, decreased visibility, diminished recognition, and, most importantly, decreased funding, as well as the exclusion of women from the research team is some of the bitter truth observed by her.

Migration of her husband as consultant ophthalmologist led her to leave her 13 years university job and accompany him to keep the family together, to make sure that children will be brought up in harmony and a nice family environment. When she arrived here with a job through an agent came to know that having the same degree MD in clinical Biochemistry, she had been appointed as a  Medical Officer post rather than consultant because the assigned hospital does not have the post for consultant Biochemistry.

As a humanitarian worker far from home there was a challenge of balancing her between working hours, family and humanitarian worker, sometimes inclusiveness was in question and working in a crucial way keeping in mind social stigma and stereotype.

The method by which Dr. Zeba develops the power and influence over her own life as well as the capacity to overcome the obstacles that still remain bright as daylight in her mind.

It started with breaking every day stairs up to the sixth floor with full term pregnancy. Being able to stay awake the whole night so that she can get a quiet time to listen to recorded lectures of the teachers and study from the main book. Not missing any class and practicing to be a good auditory learner when her fellow medical students are discussing. Facing the social stigma, sometimes by the very close one as you are mother no need to be desperate, each day the new challenges made her stronger and develop an attitude. She develops her support system by explaining parents the possible obstacles and the situation she was going through, keeping alive some of her hobby, do not know how but her son became source of joy and inspiration

It was not very easy to keep engaged with the lab full time along with male colleagues with dignity. She had to face many difficulties. There were obstacles in every step, though we are telling women empowerment and equality always. She faced male coworker saying that from colleagues that working in the laboratory till night and using the university corridors, roads at that time is not safe for women. Bullied by coworkers as you are trying to keep your dignity and ethics. Sometimes it could threaten your academic career and it is very difficult to come out of that psychological trauma. When she brought out misconduct situation that became harder to handle, she had to take the support of law enforcement agents. Still those days remained as a nightmare. Side by side obstacles and developing herself continued in the name different technical training of Biochemistry Instrument like Dimension –RxL Max, Abbot (AxSym) Analyzer, Stratus CS Dade Behring, Abbott Architect, Immulite, Beckman Coulter -CX9

Molecular biology Instruments like,RT PCR,Biorad HPLC base HBAC analyzer & GENE EXPERT and several quality assurance training including ISO 15189. That was her only goal to make her sound in science and technology, so that her steps will be strong enough not to ripple in the storm of social stigma.

In Maldives her journey started in 2014 as an expatriate as well as a woman. Here her clear understanding was that people will accept you if they feel that you are qualified and important for them.

She submitted her CV to different private and Gov. Hospital. Finally at then CEO of Igmh Brigadier Farath Saheer and Dr. Milza interviewed me and appointed with condition at Biochemistry lab for one month again started to prove herself. As a Consultant Biochemist, Dr. Zeba's work is commended as meticulous and well-organized, with an admirable ability to meet tight deadlines without compromising the quality of work. Among other things, her work in IGMH's laboratory involved resolving problems through data evaluation and examination before selecting corrective steps, completing reports of findings and after 15 days they replied positively, created a post and appointed me as consultant in Biochemistry. Since April 2019 she has been working as assistant professor at School of medicine Maldives National University.

Dr. Zeba is a careful and creative thinker with an eye for details and a devotion to logic, which serve her both in the field of medical sciences and outside it. Dr. Zeba's penetrating mind allows her not only to grasp the basics of our curriculum, but also to formulate highly original and persuasive arguments. She is important part of SM research team. To break the confounding bias of conventional teaching to contemporary teaching learning method and student center method she stress her knowledge and technical skill and for that she went through series of workshop and training, some of them are as follows:

• Training on Designing problem Based Learning Packages
• Curriculum Overview and special study module implementation and research skills
• Quality assurance and accreditation of the medical Programme
• Workshop on medical education training for the teacher organized by World Health Organize (WHO) And center for medical education Bangladesh and much more

Still she continue to develop herself as she believed on becoming scholar from personal advancement and also her own teaching .

Dr. Zeba is to be commended for her professionalism, concern for her students, and quality of instruction. She is working from the very first batch of school of medicine. I find her uniquely resourceful and adaptive to the methods of teaching.

Research work led her to 16 national and international scientific papers.

She was awarded The Maldives National University (MNU) Research Grants

1.Association between Iron Status and Thyroid Function, 2019 to 2021 as co-investigator.

2.MTHFR gene C677T polymorphism and its association with folate, homocysteine, infertility, and risk of coronary heart disease pre-folic acid fortification era in female staff attending MNU, as principal investigator.

Dr. Zeba has consistently made a substantial contribution to improving staff development and laboratory productivity. Working as a key focal point Dr. Zeba was instrumental in introducing new parameters to the laboratory through the Total Laboratory Automation project.

As the most recent engagement with Maldivian Red Crescent, Dr. Zeba un Naher supported information dissemination and contact tracing during the lockdown phase of Covid 19 operations. Her commitment to the operation was remarkable and we are grateful for the service she offered including the translation service as part of the Covid 19 information dissemination operation.

In addition to her contributions as a valuable member of the Migrant Advisory Committee,

 Dr. Zeba un Naher has also provided her technical expertise to the development of MRC’s strategic Plan 2019-2030. As a result of her active engagement, MRC Strategic Plan 2019-2030 was finalized and adopted at the 10th MRC General Assembly in 2019 with migrant workers identified as a key target group.

She is constantly working to strengthen her sense of self-worth, her ability to make and exercise choices, her access to opportunities and resources, her right to have power over her own lives, both inside and outside the home. From her life Dr. Zeba knows empathy is necessary, more than equality, equity is important and above all one should have the determination and inner strength to fight against any type of obstacles. her capacity to shape social change in order to establish a more just social and economic order on a national and international scale sometimes through teaching the youth, sometimes through contribution towards the society by giving time in various humanitarian work. What She discovered is that by taking small steps toward a very distant goal, one can start to advance more quickly, in that way opportunities outlook unfolds.