Sufia Kamal

Begum Sufia Kamal (20 June 1911 – 20 November 1999) was a Bangladeshi poet, feminist leader, and political activist. She took part in the Bengali nationalist movement of the 1950s and civil society leader in independent Bangladesh. She led feminist activism and was a president of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad. She died in 1999 and was the first woman to be given a state funeral in Bangladesh. Syeda Sufia Begum was born on 20 June 1911, in her maternal home Rahat Manzil in Shayestabad, located in the Backergunge District of Eastern Bengal and Assam. Her paternal family were the zamindars of Shilaur in Brahmanbaria, and they claimed descent from Ali, the fourth Caliph of Islam. Whilst she was seven months old, her father Syed Abdul Bari left his job as a lawyer and became a Sufi ascetic, never returning home. She was raised by her mother, Sabera Begum, the youngest daughter of Nawab Mir Muazzam Hussain, in Shayestabad. Her education began at the local maktab, where she learnt Arabic. As she grew older, she switched to home education as per the cultural norms. Her mother, Sabera Begum, taught her how to read and write in Bengali. Through home education at the Shayestabad zamindar estates, she gained proficiency in Bengali, Arabic, and Hindustani. In 1918, she went to Kolkata with her mother where she came to meet with Begum Rokeya.