Begum Sufia Kamal



Sufia Kamal was born on 20 June 1911 in Barisal, Eastern Bengal & Assam, then a part of British India. At the time, it was difficult for girls to receive an education so at home she studied Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, and Arabic languages. In 1922, when she was just 11 years old, she married her cousin Syed Nehal Hossain and together they had one daughter before he passed away after just ten years of marriage. Five years later she married her second husband, Kamaluddin Ahmed, who she had four additional children with. In 1923, when she was just 12 years old, her first piece of work, a short story, Shainik Bahadur, was published in a local paper. The story was followed by the publishing of Sufia’s first poem, Bashanti (Of Spring) in Saogat magazine. With the publication of her first poem, her literary career took off and she published her first book of poems, Sanjher Maya (Evening Enchantment) in 1938. At the age of 36, Sufia became fate inaugural editor of the Begum weekly magazine, which focused on women’s issues. That same year, during the partition of India, she joined the Peace Committee, which attempted to build connections between Hindus and Muslims who were clashing at the time. Sufia also advocated for the resignation of the Pakistani military general and the recognition of Bengali as an official language, creating the Mohila Sangram Parishad, of Women’s Struggle Group. In the later years of her life, Sufia played an active role in the liberation war, helping freedom fighters and delivering food and medicine across the country. It was reported that during a meeting with social elite, the military general Ayub Khan remarked that ordinary people were like beasts who were not fit to be given franchise. Sufia Kamal stood up and retorted “If the people are beasts then as the President of the Republic, you are the king of the beasts”. Begum Sufia Kamal passed away on November 20, 1999 at the age of 88 in her independent home country Bangladesh.