Home » Working Women » Women from History » Begum Liaquat Ali Khan Pakistani politician and women's leader - that's what Begum Liaquat Ali Khan was. Begum Liaquat Ali Khan fought vehemently for the upliftment of women. In 1978, she received the Human Rights Award of the United Nations.
A member of an aristocratic Muslim family, she was educated at the universities of Lucknow and Calcutta. She joined the faculty of Indraprastha College for Women in New Delhi where she taught economics. In 1939, she married Liaquat Ali Khan, who became the Prime Minister of Pakistan after the partition in 1947.
Being a well-read woman and accomplished in her own right, she desired to set up an association for women with the aim of making them self-sufficient. Her dreams came true when in 1949, after the partition between India and Pakistan and the troubles that followed the partition, Begum Liaquat Ali Khan formed an organisation at the national level of over two million women to act as nurses, teachers and administrators. This organisation went on to receive formal status in 1948 and was called the "All Pakistan Women's Association". The organisation, which was initially only an emergency body, changed its focus within three years of its inception and resulted in a major women's movement.
The All Pakistan Woman's Association soon became a very vital force in Pakistan involving women in the political life of the country. Begum Liaquat Ali Khan, the founder member of the movement soon went on to become the first Muslim Woman's Ambassador. She was posted in Belgium and the Netherlands in 1954. She was also appointed the Ambassador to the countries of Italy and Tunisia.
Begum Liaquat Ali Khan was also very active in the various committees of the United Nations. In 1973, she became the first woman to govern the province of Sindh. She was also appointed as the Chancellor of the University of Karachi.