Sufia Kamal

Sufia Kamal was born on June 20, 1911, into an aristocratic Muslim family in Shayestabad, Barisal. Barred from learning anything beyond Arabic and Urdu, she secretly taught herself Bengali with her mother's support. In 1926, she published her first short story, catching the admiration of Begum Rokeya, who mentored her in women's rights.

Her 1938 poetry collection Sanjher Maya ('Twilight Illusion') received glowing praise from Rabindranath Tagore. In 1961, she led the historic defiance against Ayub Khan's ban on Tagore's songs, and in 1970 founded the Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, South Asia's largest grassroots women's organization. During the 1971 war, she stayed in occupied Dhaka helping wounded freedom fighters. Upon her death in 1999, she was the first woman in Bangladesh accorded a state funeral.