Nawab Faizunnesa was born in 1834 in Pashchimgaon, in what is now Laksham, Bangladesh. She was raised in a strict household & was self taught, educating herself in the library and eventually becoming proficient in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, and Bengali. When her mother passed away in 1883, Faizunnesa inherited the estate becoming zamindar, or landowner. She founded a number of schools, some like, Nawab Faizunnesa Government Girl’s High School, were the earliest female private schools on the Indian Subcontinent. In addition to schools, she built hospitals, roads, and mosques across her region. In 1893, ten years before her death, she established a charitable dispensary in her village, created specifically to help the destitute & widowed women in the village. Because of her charitable work & dedication to social work, Queen Victoria awarded her the title of Nawab, or sovereign ruler, which made her the first female Nawab in Southern Asia. In addition to her dedication to helping the vulnerable, Faizunnesa was also a writer, publishing a number of literary pieces throughout her lifetime, the most notable being Rupjalal, a semi autobiographical allegory, recently translated into English. She passed away in 1903 & left her entire property to the state.