23 Facts About Rashid Jahan

Rashid Jahan was an Indian writer and medical doctor known for her Urdu literature and trenchant social commentaries.

Rashid Jahan wrote short stories and plays and contributed to Angarey, a collection of unconventional short stories written in collaboration with Sajjad Zaheer, Ahmed Ali, and Mahmuduz Zafar.

Rashid Jahan has been called one of the first ever feminists and was a leading Indian communist.

Rashid Jahan was born on 25 August 1905 in Aligarh.

Rashid Jahan was the eldest of seven children born to Sheikh Abdullah and his wife Begum Wahid Jahan.

Rashid Jahan's father was a leading pioneer of women's English-based education in India and established the Women's College, Aligarh at the Aligarh Muslim University.

Sheikh Abdullah ran the Urdu literary journal Khatun, which promoted women's emancipation and education, and to which Rashid Jahan's mother was a frequent contributor.

Rashid Jahan undertook her early education in Aligarh at the Muslim Girls' School and Hostel, where she studied until she was 16 years old.

Rashid Jahan wrote her first short stories for the Chand Bagh Chronicle, a publication of the Isabella Thoburn College.

Three years later, in 1924, Rashid Jahan moved to Lady Hardinge Medical College in Delhi to study obstetrics and gynecology.

In 1931, Rashid Jahan was posted to the Lady Dufferin Hospital in Lucknow, the capital city of the United Provinces.

In Lucknow, Rashid Jahan met Sajjad Zaheer, Ahmed Ali, and Mahmuduz Zafar.

In October 1934, Rashid Jahan married Angaaray collaborator and noted Communist Mahmuduz Zafar.

Rashid Jahan resigned from the United Provinces medical service and joined Zafar in Amritsar soon after.

In 1935 and 1936, Rashid Jahan was intimately involved in the founding of the Progressive Writers' Association, organizing the First Progressive Writers' Conference in Lucknow during the April of 1936.

In 1937, Rashid Jahan moved , this time to Dehradun, where she continued to be an active member of the Communist Party of India while working as a gynecologist and serving as the editor of the Communist newspaper-cum-literary journal Chingari.

In early 1937, Rashid Jahan published a collection of plays and short stories entitled Aurat.

Mirza further relates that Rashid Jahan became a sort of mother-figure for all the poor comrades and their families.

Rashid Jahan's organizing activities continued until March 1949, when she was jailed for three months for participating in a strike that paralyzed the United Provinces railway system.

Rashid Jahan was admitted to the Kremlin Hospital but died on 29 July 1952, soon after arriving.

The plays Rashid Jahan wrote were intended for radio, and were generally aired on All India Radio during her lifetime.

Rashid Jahan's writings have appeared in Woh aur Dusre Afsane wa Drame and A Rebel and Her Cause.

Rashid Jahan's younger sister, Begum Khurshid Mirza, was a noted film actress in British India in the 1930s and 1940s, and later was an accomplished TV actress in Pakistan.