Zaib-un-Nissa Hamidullah was a Pakistani writer and journalist. She was a pioneer of feminism in Pakistan. She was the first female publisher and editor in Pakistan and the first female columnist to write in the English language. She was also the first female editor in Pakistan and the first woman to be included in press delegations that were sent abroad. She made history in 1955 as the first female speaker at Cairo, Egypt’s historic al-Azhar University during one of these visits. Zaibunnisa Street was named after her in Karachi.
Early Life
Zaib-un-Nissa Ali was born in Calcutta in 1921 into a literary family. As a passionate writer and Bengali and Indian nationalist, her father, S. Wajid Ali, was the first to translate the writings of the well-known Urdu poet Muhammad Iqbal into Bengali. Her father’s home at 48 Jhowtalla Road served as something of a gathering spot for the Calcutta literary circle, thus she grew up in a close-knit Anglo-Indian family full of Bengali intellectuals and philosophers of that time. She began writing at a young age, with her Bengali father and English mother providing her with a lot of encouragement. Zeb-un-Nissa, a lonely child, turned to poetry writing as a way to express her emotions. Her travels to rural Punjab and Bengal, particularly to the Bengal village of Borotajpur, her father’s birthplace, had an impact on her subsequent writing. She attended the Loreto House Convent for her education. At the age of fifteen, she had her first poem published in The Illustrated Weekly of India in 1933. At the age of 18, she won a poetry competition sponsored by the Daily Mirror in England for a poem she had written in The Star of India, which later became part of the Dawn group of papers.
Marriage
She got married to Khalifa Muhammad Hamidullah in 1940. Unlike other weddings at that time, hers was not arranged. After their marriage, she relocated to the Punjab Province with him. During India’s independence in 1947, she and her husband assisted refugees crossing the border.
Her husband came from a prominent Punjabi family. All of her writings were dedicated to him, indicating their love for one another. They had two children: Yasmine and Nilofar.
Begum Hamidullah struggled to adapt to the vastly different lifestyle of her husband’s Punjabi family after coming to the region in 1942. She acknowledged in the foreword to The Young Wife that it took some time for her to adjust.
Career
1936-1943
Begum Hamidullah gained popularity for the first time in 1936 when Bombay’s Illustrated Weekly of India approved one of her poems for publication. She was a regular contributor to the newspaper from then until the country’s independence in 1947. Her first book of poetry, Indian Bouquet, was published by her father’s publishing firm in 1943 and was a huge success. In three months, every copy of the first edition was sold out. Lotus Leaves, her second poetry collection, built on her early success.
1944-1946
Begum Hamidullah and her husband were in Simla in 1945 at the time of the Simla Conference. This is where she met Fatima Jinnah. They became friends, and Jinnah soon secured an exclusive interview with her brother, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. This marked a turning point in the career of the young Begum Hamidullah and gained her widespread recognition.
1947-1951
Begum Hamidullah chose to pursue a career in journalism following Pakistan’s independence in 1947. She quickly made a name for herself as an opinionated writer by contributing her column “Thru a Woman’s Eyes” to the Dawn daily newspaper in Karachi. This column first appeared in December 1947. After a while, she protested against the limited scope of the feature, saying that women should have the freedom to remark on any issue, including politics. Eventually, Dawn’s editor at the time, Altaf Husain, consented to grant her more authority. Begum Hamidullah rose to prominence as Pakistan’s first female political analyst. She gained recognition as an honest columnist who wasn’t hesitant to express her thoughts. It was also a significant step forward for Pakistan’s women’s rights movement.
1951-1956
Begum Hamidullah left Dawn in 1951 after editor Altaf Husain insisted that she limit her writing to “issues concerning women.” In 1952, she established The Mirror, making history as the country’s first female publisher and editor.
Begum Hamidullah had associations with Fatima Jinnah, Begum Ra’ana Liaquat Ali Khan, and other significant figures. She was also a founder member of the Pakistani Working Women’s Association. She was an active member of several women’s organisations, including the Business and Professional Women’s Foundation and the Women’s International Club of Karachi.
She made history in 1955 when she spoke at Al-Azhar University about the Kashmir problem as part of a press delegate to Cairo. She chronicled her travels to the US in her travelogue “Sixty Days in America,” which she wrote in 1956. In 1957, she attended a UN-sponsored seminar on behalf of Pakistan.
Ban on the Mirror
Her vocal opposition to Major-General Iskander Mirza’s harsh dictatorship and Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy’s forced retirement in 1957 led to a six-month government ban on the Mirror, which was implemented on November 9th. She was told in secret that if she apologised in public, this prohibition would be lifted. She declined to comply with this and, following the counsel of renowned lawyer A.K. Brohi, filed an appeal with the Pakistan Supreme Court.
Her case was upheld by the Supreme Court. Begum Hamidullah was granted the costs of her case by the government, which deemed the Central Government’s action to be unlawful and unconstitutional. She became the first female journalist to win a case in the Supreme Court.
1958-1961
Her anthology of short stories, ‘‘The Young Wife and Other Stories’’ was published in 1958. It was so liked that it was reprinted in 1971 and 1987, respectively, in its second and third editions. Renowned critics from foreign and Pakistani publications and magazines referred to some of the pieces as “the most significant literary productions of Pakistan.”
Begum Hamidullah founded Mirror Press, her own publishing company, in April 1961.
The 1960s
In the 1960s, Begum Hamidullah’s editorials in The Mirror, which sharply criticised the government’s autocratic system of governance, catapulted the publication into a very controversial position. Begum Hamidullah lost favour with the government after becoming a harsh opponent of Ayub Khan and his administration. As a result, the Mirror stopped receiving government ads and funding.
1969-1971
From 1970 to 1971, Begum Hamidullah led Pakistan’s delegation to the UN General Assembly as Deputy Leader. In 1971, following civil turmoil and Bangladesh’s independence, Begum Hamidullah wrote a telegram greeting the new administration but chose to remain in Pakistan.
Begum Hamidullah’s husband was posted to Ireland in 1971 to manage Bata operations there. She sold off her publishing company, Mirror Press, and discontinued the magazine since neither of her two daughters wanted to carry it.
1971-1979
For most of the 1970s, she and her husband lived in Dublin, Ireland. She visited Pakistan on a regular basis and returned near the end of the decade and started writing a column called “Thinking Aloud” for the Pakistani magazine MAG, which is part of the massive Jang Group.
1980-1983
She was president of the All Pakistan Women’s Association (APWA) in the early 1980s, an institution she had been involved with from its beginnings. She was still writing for Karachi’s Morning News, where she discussed the socio-political aspects of Pakistani society.
Retirement
In 1983, Begum Hamidullah’s husband passed away following a heart attack. She wrote what would turn out to be her most well-known essay of her career on the day of his funeral. The Morning News ran this thoughtful article the day following her husband’s passing.
Following her husband’s death, she was overcome with grief and soon retired from active writing and only wrote occasional articles during the 1980s.
Death
At the age of 81, Begum Hamidullah passed away on September 10, 2000.
The government honoured her with the naming of Zaibunnisa Street, an important street in the heart of Karachi, in the 1960s.
Legacy
Yasmine S. Ahmed, Begum Hamidullah’s younger daughter, received her copyright following her death. This covered the ownership of all of her images, creations, etc. In August 2008, Oxford University Press, Pakistan issued a fourth edition of The Young Wife and Other Stories in response to widespread demand.