Islamabad: The 129th birth anniversary of Madr-e-Millat Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah is being observed on Sunday.
She was born on this day in 1893 in Karachi. Fatima Jinnah played a crucial role alongside her brother Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the Pakistan Movement.
Fatima Jinnah was a Pakistani politician, dental surgeon, stateswoman and one of the leading founders of Pakistan.
After obtaining a dental degree from the University of Calcutta in 1923, then she became the first female dentist of undivided India, she became a close associate and an adviser to her older brother, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who later became the first Governor General of Pakistan. A strong critic of the British Raj, she emerged as a strong advocate of the two nation theory and a leading member of the All-India Muslim League.
After the independence of Pakistan, Jinnah co-founded the Pakistan Women’s Association which played an integral role in the settlement of the women migrants in the newly formed country.
] She wrote the book My Brother, in 1955 but it was only published 32 years later, in 1987.
Jinnah came out of her self-imposed political retirement in 1965 to participate in the presidential election against military dictator Ayub Khan. She was backed by a consortium of political parties, and despite political rigging by the military, won two of Pakistan’s largest cities, Karachi and Dhaka.
Jinnah died in Karachi on 9 July 1967. She remains one of the most honoured leaders in Pakistan, with nearly half a million people attending her funeral in Karachi.
Her legacy is associated with her support for civil rights, her struggle in the Pakistan Movement and her devotion to her brother. Referred to as Mader-e Millat (“Mother of the Nation”) and Khatun-e Pakistan (“Lady of Pakistan”), many institutions and public spaces in Pakistan have been named in her honour.
