Begum Sufia Kamal
| Begum Sufia Kamal | |
|---|---|
| Born |
20 June 1911 Barisal, Bengal Presidency, British India (now in Bangladesh) |
| Died | 20 November 1999 (aged 88) Dhaka, Bangladesh |
| Occupation | poet, writer |
| Spouse(s) | Syed Nehal Hossain (1922–1932; widow) Kamaluddin Ahmed (1937–) |
| Children | Amena Kahar (daughter) Sultana Kamal (daughter) Saida Kamal (daughter) Shahed Kamal (son) Sajed Kamal (son) |
| Awards |
Bangla Academy Award (1962) Ekushey Padak (1976) Independence Day Award (1997) |
Begum Sufia Kamal (Bengali: সুফিয়া কামাল; 20 June 1911 – 20 November 1999) was a Bengali poet (born in present-day Bangladesh) and political activist. Kamal was an influential cultural icon in the Bengali nationalist movement of the 1950s and 60s and an important civil society leader in independent Bangladesh. She died in 1999 and was the first woman to be given a state funeral in the country.
Sufia was born in Shaestabad, Barisal. She was a daughter of a Zamindar family. During her childhood, women's education was prohibited and she could not afford to get academic education. But she learned Bengali, Hindi, English, Urdu, Arabic, Kurdish and Persian language from her house tutors. In 1918, she went to Kolkata with her mother where she came to meet with Begum Rokeya. She was first married at the age of 11 to her cousin Syed Nehal Hossain, then a law student. They had a daughter, Amena Kahar. Hossain died in 1932. Five years later, Sufia married Kamaluddin Ahmed.
Sufia later became mother of two other daughters, Sultana Kamal and Saida Kamal, and two sons Shahed Kamal and Sajed Kamal.
In 1925 she met Mahatma Gandhi, which inspired her to wear simple clothing.
Sufia Kamal's first poem, Bashanti (Of Spring), was published in Saogat magazine in 1926. In 1931 she became the first Bengali Muslim female to be a member of the Indian Women Federation.
A short story Shainik Bodhu which she wrote was published in a local paper in 1923. Her literary career took off after her first poetry publication. Her first book of poems, Sanjher Maya (Evening Enchantment), came out in 1938, bearing a foreword from Kazi Nazrul Islam and attracting praise from Rabindranath Tagore. Sanjher Maya was translated into Russian language as Санжер Майя улу Суфия Камал in 1984.
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