->Jonas7798 at 05:18, 19 November 2021

2021-11-19T05:18:52Z

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{{short description|Pakistani diplomat}}
{{Use Pakistani English|date=September 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2018}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix = [[Nishan-e-Imtiaz|NI]]
| name = Shaista Ikramullah '''شائستہ اکرام الله'''
| image = Begum Shaista Suhrawardy.jpg
| caption = Begum Shaista Ikramullah
| office1 =
| office2 = Member of the [[Constituent Assembly of Pakistan]]
| termstart2 = 10 August 1947
| termend2 = 24 October 1954
| constituency2 = East Bengal
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1915|07|22}}
| birth_place = [[Calcutta]], [[British India]] (now in [[West Bengal]], [[India]])
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|2000|12|11|1915|07|22}}
| death_place = [[Karachi]], [[Sindh]], [[Pakistan]]
| nationality = [[Pakistan]]i
| alma_mater = [[University of Calcutta]] (B.A) [[SOAS, University of London]] (Ph.D)
| occupation = Politician, Diplomat, Writer
| spouse = [[Mohammed Ikramullah]]
| children = Inam Ikramullah [[Naz Ikramullah]] [[Salma Sobhan|Salma Ikramullah]] [[Princess Sarvath al-Hassan|Sarvath Ikramullah]]
}}

'''[[Begum]]''' '''Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah''' (22 July 1915 – 11 December 2000) was a [[Pakistani people|Pakistani]] [[politician]] from Bengal, [[diplomat]] and [[author]].<ref name="Smith2008">{{cite book|author=Bonnie G. Smith|title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EFI7tr9XK6EC&pg=PA528|year=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-514890-9|pages=528–}}</ref> She was the first Muslim woman to earn a PhD from the [[University of London]].<ref name="Shamsie2015">{{cite book|author=Muneeza Shamsie|title=And the World Changed: Contemporary Stories by Pakistani Women|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=82NFCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA6|date=11 July 2015|publisher=Feminist Press at CUNY|isbn=978-1-55861-931-9|pages=6–}}</ref> She was Pakistan's ambassador to [[Morocco]] from 1964 to 1967, and was also a delegate to the [[United Nations]].<ref name="Smith2008"/>

==Family and education==
Ikramullah was born as Shaista Akhtar Banu Suhrawardy into the [[Suhrawardy family]] to [[Hassan Suhrawardy]] and his wife Sahibzadi Shah Banu Begum. Sahista's mother was [[Nawab Abdul Latif]]'s granddaughter.<ref name="Smith2008"/>

She studied at [[Loreto College, Kolkata]].<ref name="ncr-iran1">{{cite web |url=http://www.women.ncr-iran.org/women-in-history/4139-women-in-history-22-july |title=NCRI Women's Committee - Women in History - 22 July |publisher=Women.ncr-iran.org |date=28 July 2018 |access-date=9 April 2019 |archive-date=14 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180214073404/http://www.women.ncr-iran.org/women-in-history/4139-women-in-history-22-july |url-status=dead }}</ref> She was also the first Muslim woman to earn a PhD from the [[University of London]].<ref name="Shamsie2015"/> Her doctorate thesis, "Development of the Urdu Novel and Short Story", was a critical survey of Urdu literature.<ref name=hhh>[http://storyofpakistan.com/begum-shaista-ikramullah Begum Shaista Ikramullah] storyofpakistan.com website, Retrieved 8 April 2019</ref>

==Marriage and children==
She married [[Mohammed Ikramullah]] in 1933.<ref name="Pothen2012">{{cite book|author=Nayantara Pothen|title=Glittering Decades: New Delhi in Love and War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FCgbjKrfkyMC&pg=PT218|date=30 January 2012|publisher=Penguin Books Limited|isbn=978-81-8475-601-2|pages=218–}}</ref> They had four children:<ref>{{cite news |author=Muhammad Ikramullah |url=http://www.thefridaytimes.com/04022011/page30.shtml |title=Doc Kazi's collection by Muhammad Ikramullah |newspaper=The Friday Times |date=2006-02-03 |access-date=2018-02-13 |archive-date=30 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130930154322/http://www.thefridaytimes.com/04022011/page30.shtml |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* Inam Ikramullah
* [[Naz Ikramullah|Naz Ashraf]]
* [[Salma Sobhan]]
* [[Princess Sarvath al-Hassan|Princess Sarvath of Jordan]]

==Political career==
After she was married, she was one of the first Indian Muslim women in her generation to leave [[purdah]].<ref name="Smith2008"/> [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]] inspired her to be involved in politics.<ref name="Smith2008"/> She was a leader in the Muslim Women Student's Federation and the [[All-India Muslim League]]'s Women's Sub-Committee.<ref name="Smith2008"/>

In 1945, she was asked by the Government of India to attend the Pacific Relations Conference. Jinnah convinced her not to accept the offer, as he wanted her to go as the representative of the Muslim League and to speak on its behalf.

She was elected to the [[Constituent Assembly of India]] in 1946, but never took the seat, as Muslim League politicians did not.<ref name="McDermottGordon2014">{{cite book|editor1=Rachel Fell McDermott|editor2=Leonard A. Gordon|editor3=Ainslie T. Embree|editor4=Frances W. Pritchett|editor5=Dennis Dalton|title=Sources of Indian Traditions: Modern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w8qJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA574|date=15 April 2014|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-51092-9|pages=574–}}</ref><ref name="Smith2008"/>

She was one of two female representatives at the first [[Constituent Assembly of Pakistan]] in 1947.<ref name=hhh/>

She was also a delegate to the [[United Nations]], and worked on the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]] (1948) and the [[Genocide Convention|Convention Against Genocide]] (1951).<ref name="Smith2008"/><ref name="McDermottGordon2014"/><ref name="ncr-iran1"/><ref>[http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=UNTSONLINE&tabid=2&mtdsg_no=IV-1&chapter=4&lang=en#Participants Status of the Convention] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140924170456/http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=UNTSONLINE&tabid=2&mtdsg_no=IV-1&chapter=4&lang=en |date=24 September 2014 }}</ref>

She was Pakistan's Ambassador to [[Morocco]] from 1964 to 1967.<ref name="hhh" />

==Publications==
She wrote for ''Tehzeeb-e-Niswan'' and ''Ismat'', both Urdu women's magazines, and later wrote for English-language newspapers.<ref name="Smith2008"/> In 1950 her collection of short stories, called ''Koshish-e-Natamaam'', was published.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1076933|title=COLUMN: Forgotten literary past|first=Aamer|last=Hussein|date=29 December 2013|work=Dawn |access-date=8 April 2019}}</ref> In 1951 her book ''Letters to Neena'' was published; it is a collection of ten open letters supposedly written to Indians, who are personified as a woman called Neena.<ref name="Pirbhai2017">{{cite book|author=M. Reza Pirbhai|title=Fatima Jinnah|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pU7ODgAAQBAJ&pg=PA143|date=27 May 2017|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-19276-8|pages=143–}}</ref> The real Neena was one of her in-laws.<ref name="Pirbhai2017"/> After the [[Partition of India]], she wrote about Islam for the government, and those essays were eventually published as ''Beyond the Veil'' (1953).<ref name="Smith2008"/> Her autobiography, ''From Purdah to Parliament'' (1963), is her best-known writing; she translated it into Urdu to make it more accessible.<ref name="Smith2008"/><ref name="storyofpakistan.com">{{cite web|url=http://storyofpakistan.com/begum-shaista-ikramullah|title=Begum Shaista Ikramullah - Former First Female Representative of the first Constituent Assembly of Pakistan|date=21 October 2013|access-date=8 April 2019}}</ref> In 1991 her book ''[[Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy]]: A Biography'', about her uncle, was published.<ref name="storyofpakistan.com"/> She also was one of the eight writers of the book ''Common Heritage'' (1997), about India and Pakistan.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lSHYAAAAMAAJ|title=Common Heritage|first1=Muḥammad ʻAlī|last1=Ṣiddīqī|first2=Shaista Suhrawardy|last2=Ikramullah|date=13 February 1997|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195778083}}</ref> In her last days, she completed an English translation of ''Mirat ul Uroos'' and an Urdu volume on ''Kahavat aur Mahavray''. In 2005 her collection of women's sayings and idioms in Urdu, called ''Dilli ki khavatin ki kahavatain aur muhavare'', was posthumously published.<ref name="Smith2008"/> She also wrote ''Safarnama'', in Urdu.<ref name="storyofpakistan.com"/>

==Death==
She died on 11 December 2000, in [[Karachi]], at age 85.<ref name="ncr-iran1"/>

==Awards and recognition==
In 2002, [[President of Pakistan]] posthumously gave her the highest civil award, [[Nishan-i-Imtiaz]] (Order of Excellence) award.<ref>[https://www.dawn.com/news/27371/president-gives-away-civil-military-awards President gives away civil, military awards] Dawn (newspaper), Published 24 March 2002, Retrieved 9 April 2019</ref><ref name="ncr-iran1"/>

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20010329/ai_n14373653 Find Articles: The London – Begum Shaista Ikramullah (29 March 2001)]
* [http://www.thedailystar.net/2003/12/31/d31231011616.htm The Daily Star – Salma Sobhan]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ikramullah, Shaista Suhrawardy}}
[[Category:1915 births]]
[[Category:2000 deaths]]
[[Category:Suhrawardy family]]
[[Category:All India Muslim League members]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of Pakistan to Morocco]]
[[Category:Politicians from Kolkata]]
[[Category:Loreto College, Kolkata alumni]]
[[Category:University of Calcutta alumni]]
[[Category:Members of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan]]
[[Category:Writers from Karachi]]
[[Category:Politicians from Karachi]]
[[Category:Pakistani women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century women writers]]
[[Category:Alumni of SOAS University of London]]
[[Category:Pakistani people of Bengali descent]]
[[Category:Pakistani MNAs 1947–1954]]
[[Category:Pakistani women ambassadors]]
[[Category:Pakistani diplomats]]
[[Category:Recipients of Nishan-e-Imtiaz]]
[[Category:20th-century Bengalis]]

Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah - Revision history

->Jonas7798 at 05:18, 19 November 2021