Maadar-e-Millat

The first thing that comes to mind when one hears the name Fatima Jinnah is of course the fact that she was the sister of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, then follows a mental image of a tall handsome woman standing beside the Quaid himself. Amazingly, one cannot even visualize Fatima Jinnah without thinking about her brother. Why is that so? Was being a sister and lifelong companion to the Founder of our nation the only thing we remember her for? What do we really know about Fatima Jinnah? Hopefully, this article has been written to enlighten you about the many attributes and accomplishments of Fatima Jinnah, who has always been over-shadowed by her brother.

Born in 1893 as Fatima Bai, she was the closest of all her siblings to the Quaid, referring to him affectionately as Jin. The main reason for her extreme emotional attachment to the Quaid was the fact that he became her guardian following the death of their father, taking a keen interest in her education and ensuring that she studied at the best institutions. She joined the Bandra Convent in 1902 and in 1919, at the age of 26, she got admitted to the highly competitive University of Calcutta, where she attended the Dr. Ahmed Dental College, one of the only dental colleges in the subcontinent at that time. It was due to the Quaid’s continuous support and encouragement, that despite living in a male dominated society she was able to receive such a high class education, becoming an accomplished Dental Surgeon, establishing her own Private Dental Clinic in Bombay in 1923 when she was 30 years of age. She also provided free services at The Dhobi Talloo Municipal Clinic.

It is important to note here that we are talking about the early 1900s, a time when it was very uncommon for women, especially Muslim women, to enroll in such prestigious institutions and receive not just any degree but a Dental Degree. Being a part of The Field of Medicine ourselves, either as qualified doctors or students, I think it is safe to say that we all know what a big deal it is to possess either an MBBS or a BDS degree in this era, so just imagine how significant it was that Miss Fatima Jinnah was a working dentist in the early 1900s.

This was a time when a large majority of Muslim women were discouraged from receiving any education beyond higher secondary level. A time when even getting admissions in Universities was extremely difficult, let alone getting enrolled in one of the only dental colleges in British India. Miss Fatima Jinnah accomplished it all. And unlike the conventional women of that era, she actually practiced her profession after graduating; managing her own private clinic, setting ablaze the dogma of society that women of a certain age must focus all their efforts on obtaining a suitable marriage proposal. Although in my research I found no information about Miss jinnah’s predisposition towards the idea of marriage, I feel safe assuming that her education meant more to her than anything else. This explains why even though she was already 26, which in the society’s eye is an age ripe for marriage, she chose to try her luck at getting admission at the prestigious University of Calcutta, outshining a large number of women to get there, since at that time there were only a few reserved seats for women at such institutions.

It has been said that behind every successful man, there is a strong, wise and hardworking woman. As it just so happens, in Jinnah’s case, that woman was none other than his sister Fatima. She became a close counselor and a trusted confidant of her brother at a time when he was knee-deep in British Indian Politics. Such was the extent of the love she had for her brother that following the death of his wife Ruttanbai in 1929, she moved into his bungalow and took charge of his house, closing down her private clinic and abandoning her profession as a consequence. Thus began their long companionship that lasted till her brother’s death on 11 September 1948.

Fatima was always by her brother’s side and accompanied him to all political and social gatherings. Therefore in various letters addressed to Jinnah, a respectful reference to Fatima was always made. During trying times, she was a source of great inspiration to her brother. As stated by Jinnah himself, "My sister was like a bright ray of light and hope whenever I came back home and met her. Anxieties would have been much greater and my health much worse, but for the restraint imposed by her”.

Apart from providing emotional support and political advice, Miss Jinnah took great interest in making her brother’s busy life more organized by designing a schedule for him and making him follow it. When Jinnah’s health deteriorated and he became confined to his bed, apart from taking care of him, she would also read his mail and important files to him and pass on his word to his secretary. Such was her influence that the Quaid would not forward his word without consulting her first.

Joining her brother in the struggle for the creation of Pakistan, she made speeches at various educational institutions and also spoke at the women’s rallies, spreading awareness about the Muslim League’s political agenda, urging the women of British India to gather support for the making of Pakistan. Although she held no political office, Miss Jinnah worked tirelessly for the Pakistan Movement and was able to win respect and recognition within and outside the All India Muslim League. She truly was an instrumental figure in the Pakistan Movement.

Not only was Miss Jinnah a passionate political worker but she was also a determined social activist. During the transfer of power in 1947 she formed the Women's Relief Committee, which later formed the nucleus for the All Pakistan Women's Association (APWA). The main priority of this Committee at that time was to provide relief to the refugees. However in later years this Committee went on to provide relief to flood victims in East and West Pakistan and manage public health issues, especially the care and treatment of T.B patients. As a founder of APWA, she would attend their meetings and address the young girls of the country, encouraging them to fulfill their educational needs and to take a greater interest in the political conditions of their nation. She also sympathized with them and gave them hope, understanding the social stigma that surrounded women’s education in the new formed state.

As a strong supporter of every woman’s Right to Education, she organized The All-India Muslim Women Students Federation in 1941 at Dehli. As a result many institutions for Women’s Education came into being under her influence. Quite the philanthropist, she personally collected funds for educational institutions and implored other rich members of society to contribute funds as well. She also encouraged members of the new formed state to speak and study the National Language, Urdu, in order to make it successful. She was strongly opposed to Provincialism, and considered it a threat to the unity and solidarity of the nation. In her view there were no Sindhi, Punjabi, Balochi, Bengali or Sarhadi people, they were all Pakistani Citizens. In the light of all her services for her fellow countrymen, it is no wonder that she came to be known as Khātūn-e Pākistān ( “Lady of Pakistan”) and Māder-e Millat (“Mother of the Nation”). The year 2003 was celebrated by the Government of Pakistan as the Māder-e Millat year under the leadership of Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali.

A countenance of keen comprehension of men and matters, personified Fatima Jinnah. She was far from a conventional Muslim woman of the 1900s, always clad in elegant attire, which often comprised of a white gharara and a dupatta gracefully draped over her head, with a beautiful string of pearls decorating her neck. Fatima Jinnah was the epitome of Eastern simplicity.  She never failed to turn heads with her sophisticated sense of style and charismatic persona. Like her brother she was honest and straight-forward in her speech and had quite a sense of humor. As a woman who always stayed true to her moral values, she was prone to anger when exposed to anything against her principles. Miss Jinnah was very particular about her daily routine and always followed a strict schedule. Extremely punctual she never tolerated tardiness, taking care to arrive at all public events exactly on time, sometimes even before the hosts themselves. When she wasn’t speaking at public events or distributing prizes at awards ceremonies, Miss Jinnah took an interest in gardening, tending to the numerous flower beds in her front yard. She also possessed a great love for animals and had a pet poodle, a goat and a duck.

In spite of her demanding schedule Miss Jinnah chose to manifest the literary genius within by writing a biography based on the Muhammad Ali Jinnah, tiltled ‘My Brother’ in 1955. However it is interesting to note that her book was only published 32 years later in 1987. Even though her status was immediately elevated to that of a patriotic heroine after the creation of Pakistan, why did it take so long for her book to be available for public consumption? This question can be answered by reviewing some of the contents of her book. Her book was far from an average biography, it held details of Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s political career and personal life that were not previously known to the public.

According to Miss Jinnah’s book, her brother, who had been suffering from tuberculosis in the last few years of his life, began to lose his health more rapidly after 1947. She was convinced that this was due to the disappointments and the sense of betrayal he felt at the hands of some of his closest comrades. Miss Jinnah seemed particularly bitter towards Pakistan’s First Prime Minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, who appeared to the public eye as Jinnah’s closest colleague in the Muslim League. She wrote that, in the last few weeks of his life, her brother remarked that many of his former colleagues were coming to meet him only to determine how much life there was left in him, indirectly implying that they were most probably waiting for him to quietly perish.

In her book Miss Jinnah also laments how heartlessly her brother, The Governor General of Pakistan, was picked up and put in an ambulance (to be taken to a hospital) and how the ambulance broke down in the middle of the road. This leaves reason to believe that might have been pressure from the government in disallowing Miss Jinnah to publish her book. Also important to note here is the fact that when Miss Jinnah appeared on Radio Pakistan to announce her brother’s death, the state-owned radio channel’s director-general, Z A. Bokhari, got a call from a government official asking him to switch off Miss Jinnah’s speech the moment she began criticizing the government’s heartless attitude towards the founder of the country and how he was left to die in an old ambulance.

Following the death of her illustrious brother, Miss Jinnah became a virtual recluse, until 1965, when at the age of 72, she was pulled out of her self-imposed political retirement to challenge Field Martial Ayub Khan in a Presidential Election. Out of a total of 196 countries in this world there were only 9 countries before Pakistan where a woman had contested the Presidential Elections. Miss Jinnah contested these Elections as a candidate for the Combined Opposition Party of Pakistan. The importance of this election lay in the fact that this was the first time in the history of Pakistan that a woman was contesting the highest political office of the country. Even the conservative religious political parties, like the Jamaat-e-Islami, which had previously declared that a woman could not hold the highest office of a Muslim country, modified their stance and supported the candidature of Miss Jinnah. Thus this election showed that people had no basis for holding a prejudice against women holding high offices in the government, and also that women could be key players in the politics of the country. In this light, Miss Jinnah was a source of awakening of Women’s Rights in Pakistan.

Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah's greatest advantage was that she was sister of the founder of Pakistan. She was against martial law when it was implemented and openly declared her opponent, Ayub Khan, a Dictator. To Ayub’s claim that he is trying to develop “basic democracy,” Miss Jinnah replied: “What sort of democracy is that? One man’s democracy? Fifty persons’ democracy?” As for Ayub’s charge that the country would revert to chaos if he is defeated, his rival snapped: “You can’t have stability through compulsion, force and the big stick.”

Miss Jinnah’s campaign generated tremendous public enthusiasm. The sight of this dynamic lady moving in the streets of the big cities, and even in the rural areas of a Muslim country, was both moving and unique. Pakistan’s response to her razor-tongued attacks on Ayub’s high-handed ways surprised and shocked the government. Students throughout the nation staged angry protests and marches against the Ayub Regime. In Karachi, student unrest prompted the government to close all the schools indefinitely. In her early rallies, nearly 250,000 people thronged to see her in Dhaka, and a million lined the train route from Dhaka to Chittagong. Her train, called the ‘Freedom Special’, was 22 hours late because men at each station pulled the emergency cord, and begged her to speak.

Eventually however Ayub Khan did go on to win the election, and most historians state that the elections had been rigged in his favor, Miss Jinnah still defeated him in two of Pakistan’s largest cities, Karachi and Dhaka. She also won in Hyderabad and narrowly lost in Peshawar. Even though she lost, the way she fought the election and the speeches she delivered are a beacon of light for the future generations. Most of the press agreed that if the contest were by direct election, she would have won against Ayub. COP accused the Ayub Regime of electoral malpractice, but Miss Jinnah once again decided to retire to a life of a recluse.

Fatima Jinnah passed away two years later, at the age of 74 on July 9, 1967. The official cause of death was heart failure, but rumors persist that she was murdered at her house. It is claimed that some officials of the local Karachi police said that she was found beheaded in her drawing room, whilst others claim that there were strangulation marks around her neck when her body was found and the state of her surroundings depicted a struggle. In 2003, the nephew of the Quaid-i-Azam, Akbar Pirbhai, reignited the controversy by suggesting that she was assassinated by the Ayub Khan establishment. To this day a number of politicians insist that she was murdered. She had requested in her lifetime that she be buried beside her brother, and is buried in his impressive mausoleum in Karachi. Ironically, Liaquat Ali Khan too is buried there.

- Maira Tahir (Class of 2017)