"No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side by side with you. We are victims of evil customs. It is a crime against humanity that our women are shut up within the four walls of their houses as prisoners. There is no sanction anywhere for the deplorable conditions in which our women have to live." -- Mohammad Ali Jinnah 1944 (Founder of Pakistan)
There was a short footage, aired on the PTV, of a Muslim League executive council meeting in 1946. In it there were two elegant ladies dressed beautiful saris, and one of them had a cigarette in a beautiful cigarette holder. That image has never left my mind. Today something like that would be unimaginable even in the most liberal of Pakistani parties. These brave women were not only active workers but the part of the executive council of the Muslim league which fashioned and carved out Pakistan from British India. In the same Pakistan today the religious leaders, who had opposed Pakistan tooth and nail, continue to push for restrictions against women in public life. How ironic.
For some reason the women leaders in our national movement have been condemned to obscurity by our official history books. It is not clear why since these women contributed just as much if not more than the men folk of the league. The most famous image of the Pakistan Movement is when a young woman climbed up atop the civil secretariat building in Lahore and planted the league flag instead instead of the union jack. The Khizer Hayat ministry then carried out a massive crackdown against the league and rounded up the women protestors, and so these women, some in saris others in burqahs ended up spending a couple of nights in Lahore jail. The women in Pakistan movement stood side by side their men and not behind them. Their contribution to the cause of Pakistan movement was second to none and was duly noted by Mohammed Ali Jinnah in many of his speeches.
After independence, the women activists of the Pakistan movement formed the bulwark of the movement for women`s rights in Pakistan. They had been behind the resolutions of equal opportunity for men and women in terms of jobs and pay in Pakistan. It was due to the efforts of women like Begum Shahnawaz, Begum Ikramullah and Begum Raana Liaqat Ali Khan, that in 1961 the Government of Pakistan had to bring in the Muslim Family laws ordinance, which practically banned polygamy. Too bad a regressive dictator in the 1980s reversed this wonderful trend which would have meant a complete emancipation of women .
I am presenting the brief sketches of some of these women who played a vital role in the organization of league and in the early years of Pakistan. These women are those whose contributions to the cause of Pakistan stood independent of their spouses, brothers or fathers. Therefore Fatima Jinnah, Raana Liaqat Ali, Viqarrunnisa Noon, and Begum Abida Sultan are not amongst them, despite the fact that they too have every right to be included in the founding mothers. The sketches are of women leaders and regretfully no record exists of the throngs of Muslim women who were rounded and locked up by the Unionist Government in Punjab. It goes without saying that it is the workers who make the leaders.
Begum Shaista Ikramullah (1915-2000)
One of the two elegant women I mention in the beginning of the article, she was known for her beautiful saris and fashionable hairdos. Born into the well renowned Suhrawardy family, politics was in her blood. Encouraged by a liberal father, she pursued higher education abroad when such a concept was unheard of amongst traditional Indian families becoming the first Muslim woman to acquire a doctorate from the University of London in 1940. In the Pakistan movement she organized the Muslim Girl Students federation of which she became the president as well, and as such was part of the Muslim agitation for Pakistan in 1946-1947.
In 1947 she entered the parliament as one of the two members of the Pakistan Constituent assembly. As mentioned earlier in this article, she was behind the acceptance of laws granting complete gender equality and checking polygamy. She was also amongst the first delegates of Pakistan at the UN. A prolific author she wrote many books including the famous ‘From Purdah to Parliament’ which forms an essential document for the study of the feminist movement within the Pakistan Movement. Her other works include ‘Hossein Shaheed Suhrawardy: a biography’ and ‘letters to Nina’.
Begum Jahanara Shahnawaz (1896-1979)
Begum Jahanara Shahnawaz was a force in her own right. The daughter of the famous Sir Muhammad Shafi (who had formed the pro-British faction of the Muslim league as opposed to the pro-congress faction led by Jinnah in the late 1920s), she was the successor of Sir Shafi’s legacy. In 1940s she was appointed member of the national Defense council by the British government. Jinnah, as the president of the league, had expressly forbidden any party members from joining any Government bodies. Jahanara’s refusal to quit, led to her expulsion. In 1946 she was allowed to rejoin and immediately she won a seat in the Punjab assembly. Jinnah then sent her and M A Isphahani to the United States to counter the propaganda against the demand for Pakistan. In 1947 she played an important role in the Muslim League’s civil disobedience movement against the Punjab government, getting arrested along with other leaders of the Punjab league.
After Independence she along with Shaista Ikramullah played an important role in getting women their rights including equal opportunity and equal rights in the eyes of the law. She also put up a brave fight against Nishtar and his thugs arguing forcefuly and without any fear that Pakistan was envisaged as a secular state.
Begum Tassadaque Hussain (1908-1995)
A great organizer, she served on the central executive council of the All India Muslim league from 1941-1943 and then as a member of the Punjab Muslim League’s executive council from 1943-1947. She was elected from a Muslim seat in 1946 elections. Her major contribution was the organization of Muslim women especially during the civil disobedience movement against Khizer Hayat Tiwana’s ministry. The Government soon lost its nerve, ordered lathi charge on the brave league women and then rounded them up and put them behind bars. She was entrusted with the organization of civil disobedience movement in NWFP as well, which she did effectively.
Sughra Begum (unknown)
A brilliant organizer and worker of the Muslim league she was the young woman who at the climax of the League’s civil disobedience had the audacity to dash through the laws of the civil secretariat and hoist the Muslim League flag instead of the British flag. She lived in relative obscurity after the creation of Pakistan.
Nusrat Khanum (1886-1966)
She was the founder of the Anjuman-e-Khawateen in sindh which aimed at improving the lot of women there. A proponent of women’s literacy, she joined the league to struggle for this objective. During the 1946 elections she played her part as the President of Women’s Subcommittee in Sindh and was part of the agitation for Pakistan.
Mumtaz Shahnawaz (Died 1948)
She was a remarkable poetess and an untiring social worker and an activist. In the Pakistan Movement, as a functionary of the Punjab League, she is famous for organizing the agitation against the Unionists and their British backers. She was one of the few leaders who had a lot of potential for Pakistan. Unfortunately she expired in a plane crash in 1948.
Fatima Begum (Unknown)
She was elected member of the Punjab legislative assembly and was one of the most vocal supporters of the Pakistan cause. She had been part of the civil disobedience movement and was like other Punjab league leaders arrested by the Khizer Hayat ministry.
Footnote: The Pakistan Movement was essentially a movement of Muslim Modernists. Therefore the issue of women’s rights became intertwined with it. In the late 1950s, the struggle of the brave women of Pakistan was rewarded with the Family Law ordinance, which to date is the most powerful weapon for the Pakistani feminists. However since the 1980s the situation in Pakistan has regressed because of the discriminatory laws introduced by an unelected dictator.
