Zainah Anwar

Zainah Anwar is a prominent Malaysian non-governmental organisation leader, activist and Muslim feminist. She was the head of Sisters in Islam for over two decades before stepping down.

Zainah was born in Johor, to her father, Tan Sri Haji Anwar bin Abdul Malik and mother, Saodah bte Abdullah, a housewife. Her father was credited as the man who gave the United Malays National Organisation or UMNO its name – initially United Malays Organisation. This was at a meeting in Batu Pahat when seven Umno founders from Johor Baru met Datuk Onn Jaafar to call for a unification of all the disparate Malay nationalist groups at the time. He later became Onn's private secretary when Onn became Johor's Mentri Besar.

In 1997, her father died two weeks before his 100th birthday followed by her mother a year later.

Her elder sister is Tan Sri Datuk Zarinah Anwar, the chairman of the Malaysian Securities Commission. Her younger brother is Ahmad Zakii Anwar, a well-known Malaysian artist.

Zainah was educated in Sultan Ibrahim Girls' School in Johor Bahru. Her favourite subjects were English and English literature. She told the Star in an interview that she was not a born leader, she was a born rebel.

One day, she discovered on a chance visit to the school staff room that, against her name, a frowning teacher had scribbled: “Too high spirited, too playful, too talkative, too naughty.” With these four strikes against her, she never made prefect.

...
Wikipedia