Speaker

Zafar Sobhan

Zafar Sobhan (born 19 May 1970) is a Bangladeshi public intellectual, lawyer, journalist, and political analyst. He served as the founding Editor of the Dhaka Tribune from 2012 to 2025, making it one of the country’s most influential English-language newspapers. Sobhan was the first internationally syndicated columnist from Bangladesh’s English press, with writings appearing in The New York Times, The Guardian, Time, Economic and Political Weekly, and others.Born to economist Rehman Sobhan and barrister Salma Sobhan, he hails from a distinguished family with ties to statesman Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and Jordan’s Princess Sarvath al-Hassan. Educated in Bangladesh, India, and the West, he graduated from Pomona College and studied law at Pepperdine and the University of British Columbia, later practicing as a corporate lawyer in New York. Named a Yale World Fellow (2009) and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, Sobhan is widely regarded as a leading liberal voice in Bangladesh.