BRAC University Debate Club participated in the Zonta VidhuShe 2017, which was a women’s international debate tournament was held from the 17th to the 21st of May in Kathmandu, Nepal. We are proud to report that Team BRAC, which comprised of Iffat Sumaiya Mehzabeen and Rifayat Raisa were the champions of the tournament.
The tournament was a highly competitive one with many international participants from Thailand, Philippines and one other team from Bangladesh participating from Independent University Bangladesh. The tournament was in a British Parliamentary format. Out of the 28 participating teams, BRAC also secured the top team breaking position with the highest breaking points, securing the first position in the first four rounds preliminary rounds and the second position in the fifth round, giving them a total of 14 out of 15 points.
Additionally, both the debaters from Team BRAC topped the tab as Rifayat Raisa was the best speaker of the tournament, and Iffat Sumaiya was the second best speaker. Both had a cumulative average speaker score of 80.79/100.
Moreover, Raad Sharar, ex-BUDC member, was a subsidized and invited core adjudicator of the tournament. We are very pleased to announce that she was the only subsidized international adjudicator, where she was also invited to host a training session for the debaters in the tournament.
This tournament marks BUDC’s second championship this year, and served as a wonderful learning experience, as well as establishing a strong relationship with the Nepali debating circuit. This will inevitably help the club to prepare for future endeavors.