anuary 5 marked the birth centenary of one of Pakistan’s most charismatic feminist leaders and communist activists, who shaped the consciousness of millions of her compatriots across several decades. Some of her contributions continue to shape the present.

The celebrated communist and women’s activist, Begum Tahira Mazhar Ali Khan (1925 – 2015), was born in Lahore on January 5, a hundred years ago, in a feudal family headed by Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan, one of the most powerful landlords in the pre-independence Punjab. A leader of the Unionist Party and chief minister of the province, he was a British loyalist. Tahira, however, preferred the Congress, with whose leader, Jawaharlal Nehru, later India’s first prime minister, she was in secret correspondence about the battle for freedom as well as reading lists. When she went to deliver a missive from the Communist Party of India – which she had joined upon turning 18 – regarding the party’s position on the partition, she told Mr Jinnah that she supported Congress rather than his Muslim League because the former spoke for all Indian communities and not just for Muslims.

Tahira was as independent-minded in her personal life as in her politics. She married a cousin, Mazhar Ali Khan, who was unemployed at the time. He was a communist sympathiser and had been a student leader.

In the newly created Pakistan, Tahira and her husband immersed themselves in work for the rights of the underprivileged. She was a pioneer of the women’s struggle in Pakistan. She saw no contradiction between supporting women’s rights and workers’ rights at the same time. Shostwes e donated her entire dowry to the Communist Party.

Tahira Mazhar Ali Khan was a part of the first International Women’s Day celebration in Pakistan in 1948. At her home in Lahore she hosted many historic meetings and gatherings, including the formation of the Progressive Writers’ Association. This was also the period when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a cabinet of minister, befriended Tahira and Mazhar.

Tahira was also one of the founders of the Democratic Women’s Association. The DWA was set up in 1950 with the support of the Communist Party to mobilise poor women and fight for their rights. It was more proactive and militant in its support for feminism than the All-Pakistan Women’s Association that had been set up a year ago.

Tahira was a pioneer of the women’s struggle for their eights in Pakistan; she saw no contradiction between supporting women’s rights and workers’ rights at the same time.

The DWA also played a role in instilling anti-imperialist consciousness among Pakistani women with respect to the raging conflicts of the time like the Vietnamese resistance against US intervention. Tahira Mazhar Ali was among a handful of then-West Pakistanis who protested against the army action in then-East Pakistan.

Tahira Mazhar Ali Khan also vociferously opposed draconian legislations under the Zia-ul Haq regime. In later years, despite ill health and the loss of Mazhar Ali Khan in 1993, she remained politically active participated in every protest demonstration for the rights of the underprivileged. She passed away on March 23, 2015.

Sadly, most young people today have little or no idea about her heroic struggles. It is about time that her tremendous services to the cause of Pakistan’s underprivileged people were recognised.

When in 1972 ZAB barred her son Tariq Ali, the eminent author and activist, from flying to Lahore, Tahira wrote a severe missive to her ‘friend’, alleging that he had let the people down. Bhutto to rescinded the ban. Later, when he was in a Lahore jail facing a murder charge, she had a cigar box delivered to him as a gift. Tahira was also kind to his daughter Benazir whenever the latter sought her advice.

Meeting with Begum Tahira towards the end of her life has been one of the abiding memories with this scribe. I first met her in 2003 when I was working on a research project on the contributions of the Railway Workers Union to the struggle for democracy in Pakistan. She sat down with me one afternoon and recounted her fascinating political journey from colonial India to independent Pakistan. She also suggested names of fellow communists, trade unionists and journalists I could contact for my research. With a twinkle in her eyes, she narrated how a group of Vietnamese women, who the DWA were hosting in Lahore, broke out into cries of ‘Pasionaria!’ upon seeing her, referring to the name given to the legendary Spanish communist and anti-fascist leader Dolores Ibárruri.

The writer is a Lahore-based critic, translator and researcher. He is currently translating Mumtaz Shireen’s short stories and unfinished autobiography. He can be reached at: razanaeem@hotmail.com. He tweets @raza_naeem1979.