Honour for Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi

Poet, lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar who is a five-time national awardee and has been conferred both the Padma Shree and the Padma Bhushan awards along with the Sahitya Akademi Award has added another feather to his crowded cap with an Honorary Doctorate of Literature from the Delhi's Jamia Hamdard University.

Thanking the varsity for the DLitt Akhtar said: I'm extremely honoured and humbled to be in the illustrious company of President APJ Kalam and Prof Amartya Sen who have received this honour before me. I thank all wellwishers who have been so fulsome in their appreciation.”

The celebration of this honour took on a special tone as actor-activist and Akhtar's wife Shabana Azmi was also honoured with an 'Excellence for Women Empowerment' by the Indian Council Of United Nation Relations soon after. The Secretary General of ICUNR, Major General Gagandeep Bakshi and Air Marshal Naresh Verma did the honours for the five-time national awardee actor who is also a Padma Bhushan. She told DNA: “I thank all pioneers of the women's movements who paved the way for women to stand up and be counted in the struggle for women's empowerment. I am thankful to ICUNR for recognising this through my modest work with women.”