Duchess Sophie kicks off visit to Bangladesh

The Duchess of Edinburgh has kicked off her visit to Bangladesh, playing a game of hockey and meeting with female UN peacekeepers. 

Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, completed a full day of engagements in Bangladesh on Monday. According to the Court Circular, the Duchess departed the United Kingdom on Sunday just after the Remembrance ceremonies concluded in London.

Sophie is visiting Bangladesh for three days, from 9-11 November, at the invitation of the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

Yesterday, Sophie began the day at the Crowne Plaza Hotel at Dhaka Airport, where she met with Dr Zubaida Rahman, the wife of the Bangladeshi Prime Minister. The two discussed shared interests in the welfare, protection and empowerment of women and girls, including economic opportunity, health, education and leadership.

Later in the day, the Duchess visited the Bangladesh Institute of Peace Support Operation Training (BIPSOT) — the country’s principal peacekeeping training institution, outside Dhaka. During her visit to the centre, she learned about Bangladesh’s contribution to UN peacekeeping, as the country of around 179.3 million plays a substantial role in international peacekeeping.

While at the Peacekeeping Museum, the Duchess also saw demonstrations of practical peacekeeping training. The Duchess then met with female UN peacekeepers to hear about their experiences as Bangladeshi personnel are currently deployed to UN missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Lebanon, the Central African Republic, Western Sahara and Haiti — one of the world’s largest UN troop contributors.

Sophie’s meaningful visit concluded with the planting of an olive sapling and the signing of the guest book. A poignant moment came as the Duchess was gifted a drawing of her with the late Queen Elizabeth II.

One small detail which was pointed out was the colour of the Duchess’s shirt. The bottle green which Sophie chose to wear could almost certainly be interpreted as a nod to the Bangladeshi flag, which bears a solid red disk set against a dark green background.

A much livelier atmosphere came as the Duchess joined a girls’ hockey training session at the Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan (BKSP) — the national sports training and education institute, which supports talented young athletes through specialist training alongside their education.

At the hockey training session, the Duchess met with players and was able to learn about their sporting experiences and future ambitions. Sophie then met with a number of female cricket and football players to hear about their sporting journeys, achievements and aspirations.

The female athletes across sports including hockey, cricket and football demonstrate how structured training and sporting opportunities can help young women develop confidence, ambition and pathways to compete at a higher level.

The visit will conclude with a gathering of female athletes from across the three sports, before the Duchess met with BKSP leadership to discuss opportunities for greater participation and progression for girls and young women in sport.

The Duchess’s time at BKSP was to see how sport creates opportunities, raises aspirations and empowers young people, particularly girls and young women, as Bangladesh’s women made their senior international hockey debut in April 2026. In the same qualifying campaign, they secured the country’s first-ever place in women’s hockey at the 20th Asian Games, opened by Emperor Naruhito; 14 of the 18 players in that pioneering squad came from BKSP.