| Begum Badar un nissa Akhtar | |
|---|---|
| Born | 16 February 1894 Midnapore,Bengal,British India |
| Died | 31 January 1956 (aged 61) Cuttack,Odisha, India |
| Spouse | Sayeed Mohammed |
| Issue | Ather-ul Amin, Fazal-ul Amin,Afzal-ul Amin, Shamsunnihar Akhtar, Husnara Begum |
| House | Suhrawardiyya (by birth) Ni'matullāhī (by marriage) |
| Dynasty | Suhrawardy family |
| Father | Amin Suhrawardy |
| Religion | Islam |
Begum Badar un Nissa Akhtar (1894 -1956;Midnapore) was anIndiansocial reformer andeducator fromCuttack,Odisha. She is known for challenging the stringent and orthodox societal norms and for encouraging and enabling Muslim girls to receive formal and skill based education from behind thepurdah back in the early 20th century.[1] Begum herself was formally educated and hence she took up a job as a teacher inCuttack to educate young girls. She worked to promotefemale education and to abolishgender discrimination andgender injustice in the field of education. She is regarded as one among the first female teachers and educationists of modern BritishOdisha.[2] The Badar un nissa Assembly hall atSayeed Seminary is named after her.
Badar un nissa was born into the illustriousSuhrawardy family ofMidnapore,Undivided Bengal, as the only daughter of the then subordinate judge ofCalcutta High Court, Aminuddin Al Amin Suhrawardy and his wife Begum Umme Khatun. She was the granddaughter ofUbaidullah Al Ubaidi Suhrawardy. Badar un nissa received her formal education inMidnapore. After her father's death, she was married off toSayeed Mohammed, the eldest son ofAtharuddin Mohammed of the Diwan family inCuttack.
InCuttack, Begum Badar proved to be of a great help to her husband, they both started to work for the upliftment of the Muslim society. She helped Sayeed establish the Muslim Seminary atCuttack.[3] After Sayeed's untimely death in 1922, Begum Badar un nissa was debarred from the family property and title as per theMahroom-ul-Mariaz tradition of theShariat, nevertheless she did not let this or her widowhood come on her way in carrying forward her husband's legacy.
In the early 1900s the idea of female education was still new inOdisha. Muslim girls were not allowed to attend schools or attain formal education outside their homes. Badar un nissa made her mind to educate the young girls who were shackled by the patriarchal and orthodox norms. Begum arranged for their education and took charge of it. She even arranged twopurdaah-numa horse carriages for the female students and got them admitted to Ravenshaw girls high school, where she herself took up a job as a teacher. Badar un nissa faced resistance from the Muslim society for her actions, but against every odd, she continued to educate young girls inCuttack. She used to go door-to-door to Muslim households and explain the importance offemale education. She personally took the responsibility of educating young girls at school; of bringing them to school safely inpurdah and dropping them back home.[4]
In her later life, she worked to abolish the discrimination and unfair treatment based oncreed andgender. She even took the charge of spreading education among the downtrodden communities inCuttack. She is regarded as the first Muslim woman teacher of modern BritishOdisha. The Begum Badar un nissa assembly hall inside the Sayeed Seminary atCuttack is named after her.[5]