Begum Ra'ana Liaquat Ali Khan

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Begum Ra'ana Liaquat Ali Khan (Urdu: رعنا لیاقت علی خان) (nee Sheila Irene Pant) (1905-1990) was born in a Kumauni brahmin family at Almora in the United Provinces. However, her grandfather, a Hindu had converted to christianity. She was educated at the University of Lucknow where she obtained a first class Masters degree with honors in economics in 1929.

Begum Ra'ana began her practical life as a teacher in the Gokhale Memorial School after completing the Teachers Diploma Course from the Diocesan College, Calcutta. She was later appointed as Professor of Economics in the Indraprastha College, Delhi.

In April 1933, she was married to Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan. After the reorganization of Muslim League, Begum Ra'ana devoted herself to the task of creating political consciousness amongst the Muslim women. Her struggle for emancipation continued till creation of Pakistan for Muslims of India in 1947.

The wife of the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Begum Ra'ana took the lead in starting the women's voluntary service in 1948. Women were encouraged to take up responsibilities in administering first aid, organizing food distribution, dealing with health problems, epidemics and clothing, and above all, in providing moral and emotional support. Ra'ana Liaquat Ali also took the initiative of introducing defense training for women. This step was not well received. On her own initiative, she formed the Pakistan Women's National Guard (P. W. N. G.) and the Pakistan Women Naval Reserve (P. W. N. R.) in 1949. Begum Ra'ana was the Chief Controller of both, with the rank of a Brigadier. Viewed in the perspective of the partition massacres, where helpless women had been brutally treated, the idea was not entirely unrealistic. The P. W. N. G. and P. W. N. R. could not survive for long and were disbanded soon after Ra'ana Liaquat Ali went abroad as Pakistan's Ambassador.

In 1949, Begum Ra'ana arranged a conference of over 100 active women from all over the country. The conference announced the formation of a voluntary and non-political organization for the social, educational and cultural uplift of the women, named as All Pakistan Women's Association (A. P. W. A.). She was nominated as its first President.

Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated in 1951. Begum Ra'ana continued her services for the social and economic uplift of women of Pakistan till her death in 1990.

She served as Pakistan's ambassador to the Netherlands in the 1950s and as ambassador to Italy in the 1960s. She was the first Muslim woman ambassador and Doyen of the Diplomatic Corps (while in the Netherlands), the first Muslim woman Governor (of Sindh province in the mid–1970s), the first Muslim woman Chancellor of a university (all the universities in Sindh), and the first Muslim woman to win the United Nations Human Rights Ward, the Jane Adams Medal and the Woman of Achievement Medal; the first Muslim woman delegate to the UN.

Queen Juliana of the Netherlands conferred on her the Grand Cross of Orange–Nassau, Holland's highest civilian award and one normally reserved for royalty and heads of state. Begum Liaquat also became the first recipient of the International Gimbel Award for service to humanity in 1962.

[edit] United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights Award

Main article: United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights

This honour was bestowed on her in 1978 for her outstanding contribution to the promotion and protection of the human rights embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in other United Nations human rights instruments. She is the first and only Pakistani to date to be honoured with this award.