Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah

Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah was a Pakistani diplomat, politician and author who was born in Calcutta, India in 1915. She belonged to the prominent Suhrawardy family of Bengal and was the niece of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, the Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1956-57. She studied at Loreto College, Kolkata and later at the University of Calcutta, where she obtained a BA degree in English literature. She married Mohammed Ikramullah, a civil servant, in 1933 and moved to London with him in 1937. There, she enrolled at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and became the first Muslim woman to earn a PhD from the University of London in 1940. Her thesis was on the development of Urdu literature. She returned to India in 1940 and joined the All-India Muslim League, the political party that advocated for the creation of Pakistan. She was a leader of the Muslim Women Students' Federation and the Women's Sub-Committee of the Muslim League. She was also a close associate of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, and his sister Fatima Jinnah. She was elected to the Constituent Assembly of India in 1946, but did not take her seat as the Muslim League boycotted the assembly. After the partition of India in 1947, she moved to Pakistan and became one of the two female members of the first Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. She played an active role in drafting the constitution of Pakistan and also worked on the issues of women's rights, education and social welfare. She was also a delegate to the United Nations and participated in several international conferences and committees. She worked on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Convention Against Genocide (1951). She was also a member of the UN Commission on the Status of Women from 1950 to 1952. She was Pakistan's ambassador to Morocco from 1964 to 1967 and also served as the chairperson of the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology, Larkana campus. She was a supporter of the Pakistan Peoples Party and its leaders Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto. She was also a prolific writer and published several books and articles in Urdu and English. Some of her notable works include From Purdah to Parliament (1963), a memoir of her life and political career, Behind the Veil: Ceremonies, Customs and Colour (1979), a study of the culture and traditions of Pakistan, and The Emergence of Pakistan (1984), a history of the Pakistan movement. She also wrote fiction, poetry and travelogues. She died in Karachi on 11 December 2000 at the age of 85. She was survived by her four children and several grandchildren. She was awarded the Nishan-e-Imtiaz, the highest civilian honour of Pakistan, in 2002. She was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. She is regarded as one of the most influential and respected women in the history of Pakistan.