Kamila Tyabji

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Kamila Tyabji
A young South Asian woman, with dark hair parted center, wearing a sari.
Kamila Tyabji as a young woman, from a 1937 newspaper.
Born
Kamila Faiz Badruddin Tyabji

14 February 1918
Mumbai
Died17 May 2004 (2004-05-18) (aged 86)
Mumbai
OccupationLawyer, philanthropist

Kamila Tyabji (14 February 1918 – 17 May 2004) was an Indian philanthropist and lawyer.

Early life and education[edit]

Kamila Faiz Badruddin Tyabji was born in Bombay, a member of the prominent Muslim Tyabji family of that city. Her father was Faiz Badruddin Tyabji, a judge, and her mother Salima was a member of the Bombay Legislative Assembly.[1][2] Her grandfather was Badruddin Tyabji (1844-1906), third president of the Indian National Congress. Her brother was Badruddin Tyabji, Laila Tyabji is her niece, and Zafar Futehally was her first cousin.[citation needed]

Tyabji attended St. Xavier's College in Bombay, and St Hugh's College, Oxford; at the latter school, she was a classmate of Indira Gandhi's. She was one of the earliest Muslim women to study at Oxford,[3] arriving in 1937,[4] only two years younger than Velia Abdel-Huda, who is credited as first.[5]

Career[edit]

Tyabji wore "brilliant silken saris" while she practiced insurance law in London for 25 years,[1] and hosted a BBC television program, Asian Club, with Shakuntala Shrinagesh, between 1953 and 1956.[6][7] In 1960 she was founder and first chair of the Women's Indian Association of the United Kingdom.[8]

After returning to India in the mid-1960s, Tyabji founded a charity, the Women's India Trust (WIT) in 1968, to improve women's economic independence by supporting home-based work including sewing, embroidery, and cookery.[1][9] She began the Kamila Trust in the UK, to support the work of the WIT and open a London shop, Kashi, to sell WIT goods.[10]

Tyabji wrote Limited Interests in Muhammadan Law (1949),[11] "Education and Life: Some Rethinking for Commonwealth Women" (1966),[12] and "Polygamy, Unilateral Divorce, and Mahr in Muslim Law as Interpreted in India". She was India's representative on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.[3]

Personal life and legacy[edit]

Tyabji died in Mumbai in 2004, aged 86 years.[3] WIT continues working for women's economic independence, and runs a nursing home and teacher training school in addition to its original activities.[1] The Kamila Tyabji WIT Centre in Panvel was named in her honour.[10][13][14] In 2014, she was posthumously awarded the KarmaVeer Puraskaar, for her lifetime achievements.[15]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Khan, Danish (15 February 2012). "Jam and chutney for the unskilled". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  2. ↑ Karlitzky, Maren (2002). "The Tyabji Clan: Urdu as a Symbol of Group Identity". The Annual of Urdu Studies: 193.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Khan, Naseem (15 June 2004). "Obituary: Kamila Tyabji". the Guardian. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  4. ↑ "Miss Kamila Tyabji". The Bombay Chronicle. 15 September 1937. p. 5. Retrieved 30 October 2020 – via Internet Archive.
  5. ↑ Sarin, Sophie (1 January 2013). "Princess Lulie Flamboyant: Art historian and friend of Freya Stark and". The Independent. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  6. ↑ Pandit, Vaijayanti (2003). BUSINESS @ HOME. Vikas Publishing House. pp. 159–161. ISBN 978-81-259-1218-7.
  7. ↑ "Asian Club". BBC Genome. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  8. ↑ Sheila Arora (1987). Twenty-Five Years Remenbered The Women's India Association of the United Kingdom 1960-1985. Public Resource. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-9511872-0-3.
  9. ↑ "Just Jammin'". The Times of India. 8 April 2001. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 CHARANTIMATH (2013). Entrepreneurship Development and Small Business Enterprises. Pearson Education India. pp. 116–117. ISBN 978-93-325-0953-5.
  11. ↑ Tyabji, Kamila (1949). Limited Interests in Muhammadan Law. Stevens.
  12. ↑ TYABJI, KAMILA (1966). "Education and Life: Some Re-Thinking for Commonwealth Women". Journal of the Royal Society of Arts. 114 (5116): 308–318. ISSN 0035-9114. JSTOR 41369645.
  13. ↑ "Repairs of Kamila Tyabji Centre". WIT. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  14. ↑ Bhavika. "WIT: This Women's Trust Makes Everything From Cushion Covers To Stationery". LBB, Mumbai. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  15. ↑ KarmaVeer Paraskaar Awardees, 2014-2015.

External links[edit]

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