Kamal, Sufia (1911-1999)

Sufia Kamal was born June 20, 1911, to an aristocratic family of Barisal, Bangladesh. She is remembered as a poet, social activist, and feminist, whose life focus was on fighting for women's rights and the underprivileged and working against religious fundamentalism and extremism. She did not see women's inequality as a class issue and believed that violence against and the exploitation of women existed regardless of status. In her work, she drew upon her own experiences and applied her wisdom to the condition of all women. For Sufia, as a child, women's education was prohibited. She was homeschooled through tutors, focusing on languages, specifically Urdu, Arabic, and Persian. She was married at age 12 to her cousin, Syed Nehal Hossain. He was a law student and a liberal man, encouraging her social welfare work and literary activities and supporting her educational desires.

In 1923, she wrote her first short story, “Sainik Badhu” (The Soldier Bride), and in 1925 met Mahatma Gandhi, an encounter that colored her life actions. In 1926, her first poem, “Basanti” (Of Spring), was published. Her work reflected heavy influence from Bangla literature, including roots to ancient Indian mythology. In 1938, Kamal's first book of poems, Sanjher Maya (The Eventide Spell) was published. In 1947, she became the first editor of Begum, a weekly women's magazine, and in 1949 became founding co-editor of another weekly magazine, Sultana.

During the 1930s, she was introduced to many prominent personalities in both the literary and political world. Through the influence of these various relationships she became particularly interested in Muslim women's emancipation, dedicated to those deprived of privilege and mobility resulting from conservatism. Kamal was the first Muslim woman elected to the Indian Women's Federation in 1931. After the death of her husband in 1932, she sought employment to ensure financial stability and began teaching at the Calcutta Corporation School, working there until 1942. During the 1946 Hindu-Muslim riots, she provided shelter for riot victims as well as trying to encourage friendship between Hindus and Muslims as a member of the Peace Committee. She later focused her attention on the language movement and the preservation of culture, protesting the Pakistani government's attempts to suppress Bangla and Bengali culture during Bangladesh's fight for independence from Pakistan in the 1970s.

Throughout her life, she received about 50 awards, including some international awards, for both her literary works and her contributions through social activism. Her published works have been translated into many languages, with the most complete collection represented in Russian. Kamal died November 20, 1999, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She was buried with full state honors, the first woman to receive that honor from Bangladesh.