Hafiz as she memorized the
Quran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...
. She learned to write letters to remain in touch with her elder sister after she got married in 1886.
In 1897, she became the second wife of
Sayyid Mumtaz Ali Deobandi, an Islamic scholar and an alumnus of
Darul Uloom Deoband
The Darul Uloom Deoband is an Islamic seminary (darul uloom) in India at which the Sunni Deobandi Islamic movement began. It is located in Deoband, a town in Saharanpur district, Uttar Pradesh. The seminary was established by Muhammad Qasim ...
.
She learned Arabic and Persian from her new husband and she was privately educated in English, Hindi and Maths.
On 1 July 1898, the couple started a weekly magazine for women called ''
Tehzeeb-e-Niswan'', which is regarded as one of the pioneering works on women rights in Islam.
The magazine published radical ideas about
divorce
Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...
with enforced
alimony and to end
purdah and
polygamy
Crimes
Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is married ...
. She was hailed as India's first Muslim feminist woman and the first woman who ever edited an Urdu magazine.
She edited ''Tehzeeb-e-Niswan'' until her death in 1908.
Literary works
Muhammadi Begum authored thirty books which included ''Shareef Beti'' which dealt with the hazards of arranged marriages of children which often lead to enforced marriages.
Her other works include:
* ''Aaj Kal''
* ''Safia Begum''
* ''Chandan Haar''
* ''Aadab e Mulaqaat''
* ''Rafeeqe Aroos''
* ''Khaanadari''
* ''Sughar Beti''
Death and legacy
Aged 30, Muhammadi Begum died at
Shimla
Shimla (; ; also known as Simla, List of renamed Indian cities and states#Himachal Pradesh, the official name until 1972) is the capital and the largest city of the States and union territories of India, northern Indian state of Himachal Prade ...
on 2 November 1908.
Her grandson
Naeem Tahir compiled a biography ''Sayyidah Muhammadi Begum awr Unka Khandan'' ().
Her son was
Imtiaz Ali Taj who was born in 1900. She nicknamed him "Mera Taj" (My crown) and in time he would become a leading playwright and he adopted her pet name for him, "Taj", as part of his own name. Her daughter, Waheeda Begum, became the editor of her magazine after she died and after a few years Imtiaz Ali Taj took over.
References
{{Authority control
1878 births
1908 deaths
Urdu-language writers
Pakistani magazine founders
Women scholars of Islam
Feminists