Fatima Begum

Fatima Begum, daughter of Maulvi Mahbub Alam, editor of Paisa Akhbar, was born in February 1890 at Lahore. She received early education under the supervision of her father and later studying privately passed the Munshi Fazil and the matriculation examination of the University of the Punjab.

In 1921, Fatima Begum was married to Raja Abdul Aziz, younger brother of Raja Jahanda Khan, Rais of Khanspur of the Hazart district.

Fatima Begum started her practical life as a teacher in the Lady McLagan College, Lahore. In 1930, she was appointed inspectress of Urdu School for Girls in the Bombay Municipal Corporation. She was a keen supporter of the Muslim women's educational social and cultural advancement to which she devoted her whole life and, later, donated her property.

She was a regular contributor to a number of women's newspapers and journals. The famous Urdu newspaper, Sharif Bibi, was published from Lahore under her guidance from 1913 to 1919. Her other journalistic achievement was a newspaper Khatoon. In 1937, she founded Islamia College for Girls in the vicinity of Nawan Kot, and a high school for girls in 1944 at Lahore.

She was one of the founder member of the Anjuman-i-Khawatin-i-Islam and worked as its first secretary. She was closely associated with the All-India Mulsim Women's Conference and was also an active member of the All-Inda Women's Conference. She was an ardent supporter of the Punjab Provincial Muslim Women's League from the day it was set up at Lahore by Begum Shah Nawaz in 1935.

In 1938, she supported the formation of the women's central sub-committee at the All-India Muslim League Session at Patna and was for many years the general secretary of the Punjab provincial women's sub-committee.

In April 1941, Fatima Begum was taken on the central sub-committee and in May 1641, she was appointed a member of the working committee of the Punjab provincial Muslim League. The following month, she was taken on the enquiry committee appointed to investigate into the Bhawani disturbances.

In April 1943, Fatima Begum was again nominated on the central sub-committee and later worked zealously of the Bengal Relief Fund. During the elections of 1946, she arranged several gatherings of Muslims women and urged them to vote for Pakistan.

After the elections, she went to Bihar to help the refugees and brought many of them to Lahore. She made arrangements for their rehabilitation and donated some lane for building quarters for them.

Throughout the struggle for independence, she stood firm behind the League and helped in the political awakening of the Muslim women. She made extensive tours of the Province and popularized the objective of the Muslim League. She played a remarkable role in the awakening of the Muslim women in the NWFP and later during the civil disobedience moment there. When the agitation began against the Khizr ministry in the Punjab, she led women processions and was one of the few women leaders to have hared the honour of imprisonment.

During the partition riots, she freely moved round the affected areas to look after the horror-stricken people, and at the time of the mass transfer of the population, she took up the task of helping the refugees. She died on I December 1958.