Kamila Tyabji (14 February 1918 – 17 May 2004) was an Indian philanthropist and lawyer. As a lawyer, Tyabji was renowned for being London's only woman

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

and the first to argue a case before the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

Early life and education

Kamila Faiz Badruddin Tyabji was born in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

, a member of the prominent

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

Tyabji family The Tyabji family, also known as Tyabji-Hydari, Tyabji-Fyzee, and Tyabji-Futehally family, consists of Mullah Tyab Ali and his descendants. The Tyabji family has gained fame for its exhaustive involvement in India's independence movement with ...

of that city. Her father was Faiz Badruddin Tyabji, a judge, and her mother Salima was a member of the

Bombay Legislative Assembly Bombay Legislative Assembly came into existence in 1937, as the legislature of Bombay Presidency, a province of British India. It functioned until 1960, when separate states of Maharashtra and Gujarat were formed. History The first session of thi ...

. Her grandfather was

Badruddin Tyabji Badruddin Tyabji (10 October 1844 – 19 August 1906) was an Indian lawyer, activist and politician during British Raj. Tyabji was the first Indian to practice as a barrister of the High Court of Bombay who served as the third President of ...

(1844-1906), third president of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

. Her brother was

Laila Tyabji Laila Tyabji (born 2 May 1947) is an Indian social worker, designer, writer, and craft activist. She is one of the founders of Dastkar, a Delhi-based non governmental organization, working for the revival of traditional crafts in India. She was h ...

is her niece, and

Zafar Futehally Zafar Rashid Futehally (19 March 1920 – 11 August 2013) was an Indian naturalist and conservationist best known for his work as the secretary of the Bombay Natural History Society and for the ''Newsletter for Birdwatchers'' a periodical that ...

was her first cousin. Tyabji attended St. Xavier's College in Bombay, and

St Hugh's College, Oxford St Hugh's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. It is located on a site on St Margaret's Road, to the north of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 by Elizabeth Wordsworth as a women's college, and accepte ...

; at the latter school, she was a classmate of

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 ...

's. She was one of the earliest Muslim women to study at Oxford, arriving in 1937, only two years younger than

Velia Abdel-Huda Princess Velia Osman-Oglu, born as Velia Abdel-Huda, and more commonly referred to as Princess Lulie (26 January 1916 – 29 November 2012) was an Egyptian-British art historian and socialite. She was also notable for being the first Muslim wo ...

, who is credited as first.

Career

Tyabji wore "brilliant silken saris" while she practiced

insurance law Insurance law is the practice of law surrounding insurance, including insurance policies and claims. It can be broadly broken into three categories - regulation of the business of insurance; regulation of the content of insurance policies, especial ...

in London for 25 years, and hosted a

BBC television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

program, ''Asian Club'', with Shakuntala Shrinagesh, between 1953 and 1956. In 1960 she was founder and first chair of the Women's Indian Association of the United Kingdom. After returning to India in the mid-1960s, Tyabji founded a charity, the Women's India Trust (WIT) in 1968, to improve women's economic independence by supporting home-based work including sewing, embroidery, and cookery. She began the Kamila Trust in the UK, to support the work of the WIT and open a London shop, Kashi, to sell WIT goods. Tyabji wrote ''Limited Interests in Muhammadan Law'' (1949), "Education and Life: Some Rethinking for Commonwealth Women" (1966), and "Polygamy, Unilateral Divorce, and Mahr in Muslim Law as Interpreted in India". She was India's representative on the

United Nations Commission on the Status of Women The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW or UNCSW) is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), one of the main UN organs within the United Nations. CSW has been described as the UN organ promoting gend ...

Personal life and legacy

Tyabji died in Mumbai in 2004, aged 86 years. WIT continues working for women's economic independence, and runs a nursing home and teacher training school in addition to its original activities. The Kamila Tyabji WIT Centre in

Panvel Panvel () is a city and taluka in Raigad district of Maharashtra, India. It is highly populated due to its closeness to Mumbai. Panvel is also governed for development purpose by the body of Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Panvel Municipal Corpora ...

was named in her honour. In 2014, she was posthumously awarded the KarmaVeer Puraskaar, for her lifetime achievements.KarmaVeer Paraskaar Awardees, 2014-2015

References

External links

*
Women's India Trust (WIT)
official website. {{DEFAULTSORT:Tyabji, Kamila 1918 births 2004 deaths Indian feminists People from Mumbai Indian Muslims 20th-century Indian philanthropists 20th-century Indian lawyers 20th-century Indian women lawyers Tyabji family