PERSONA
Pakistan’s media landscape may have witnessed a seismic shift over the last two decades, but press freedom remains a rare commodity. Since Independence, numerous media practitioners have engaged in a dynamic, determined struggle to obtain crucial liberties for the press. Journalist, poet and short story writer Zaib-un-Nissa Hamidullah also belongs to this charmed circle of stalwarts.
A veritable feminist icon, Begum Hamidullah is billed as Pakistan’s first woman editor and publisher, and the first female English columnist. In addition, she is among the pioneers of Anglophone literature from Pakistan.
Born in Calcutta in December 1918, she was the daughter of writer and lawyer Syed Wajid Ali, who rendered Rabindranath Tagore’s works into English and translated Allama Iqbal’s Urdu verse into Bengali. Before Independence, Begum Hamidullah was known as a poet who had penned two collections titled The Indian Bouquet (1943) and Lotus Leaves (1946). She also wrote articles and stories for newspapers in pre-Partition India. Begum Hamidullah’s friendship with Fatima Jinnah enabled her to interview the latter’s brother, Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Begum Hamidullah married Khalifa Muhammad Hamidullah, a student in Calcutta who originally hailed from Punjab. In 1947, she relocated to Karachi with her husband and began writing a weekly column for Dawn titled ‘Between Ourselves’. This was a commendable feat in a time when patriarchal values held sway and women didn’t venture into professional domains with the relative freedom they enjoy today. Begum Hamidullah’s editor only allowed her to write the column on the condition that she would comment on ‘feminine matters’. However, she repeatedly tackled political themes in her columns and soon earned the ire of her editor. Frustrated by the fetters imposed on her, she decided to establish The Mirror, a glossy magazine which went on to provide a meaningful platform for many women journalists.
As Pakistan’s first female editor, Begum Hamidullah became the first woman to be part of a press delegation that was sent to Cairo. During her visit to Egypt, she became the first woman to speak at the prestigious Al-Azhar University.
In 1956, she penned a travelogue of her trip to America as part of a foreign leadership exchange programme funded by the US government. The book, titled Sixty Days in America (1956), offers unique insights into the West at the peak of the Cold War.
In 1957, Begum Hamidullah wrote a candid editorial comment for The Mirror against Major-General Iskander Mirza’s decision to sack the government of premier Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. As a result, the government banned The Mirror for six months and Begum Hamidullah was urged to issue a public apology. Reluctant to sacrifice her beliefs at the altar of officialdom, she opted for the legal route on the advice of renowned lawyer A K Brohi and appealed to the Supreme Court. Soon after, the ban on The Mirror was declared unconstitutional, thereby making Begum Hamidullah the first woman journalist in Pakistan to combat attempts to censor the press.
In 1958, Begum Hamidullah penned The Young Wife and Other Stories, a collection of short stories pertaining to themes that don’t feature in her journalistic endeavours. Some stories deal with supernatural elements, while others tackle the intricacies of old age, gender confrontations, rural life and conservatism in Pakistan.
Apart from her journalistic and literary endeavours, Begum Hamidullah ran a publishing company called Mirror Publications between 1966 and 1971. She closed down The Mirror after she and her husband moved to Ireland. A decade later, Begum Hamidullah returned to find that her homeland had undergone a significant transformation. The country’s eastern wing had broken away and become a new country. In this changed milieu, her identity as a Bengali stood the danger of being sidelined.
Even so, she fashioned a home in Karachi and lived in the city until her death in September 2000. After her husband’s demise, Begum Hamidullah detached herself from public life, occasionally writing on a freelance basis and participating in welfare activities.