Changing India - Iqbalunnisa Hussain

Iqbalunnisa Hussain was born in Bangalore in 1897. She was married at the age of 15 to Syed Ahmed Hussain, an official in the Mysore government who encouraged her to acquire an education. She joined a school in Mysore and later the Maharanis College from where she obtained her BA degree and a gold medal by correspondence in 1930. In 1933, she travelled to the UK for her Masters in Education at Leeds University, thus becoming one of thefew middle class Muslim Women from India to obtain a degree from the UK.She represented India at the Twelfth International Womens Congress at Istanbul in September 1935 and was a keen member of the All-India Womens Conferences. In Bangalore she founded a school where she encouraged Muslim girls to acquire an education while also providing training in rug making, carpet weaving, embroidery, cutting and sewing. Her students participated in the Girl Guides, were good debaters, and keen performers in dramas and plays. She is the author of several booksincluding Changing India: A Muslim Woman Speaks, Purdah and Polygamy: Life in an Indian Muslim Household.