About: Begum Zaffar Ali

Begum Zaffar Ali, née Sahibzaadi Syeda Fatima, was an Indian women's rights activist and the first woman matriculate of the Indian state of Kashmir and Jammu who went on to become Inspector of Schools in Kashmir. She was an educationist, women's liberation activist, Deputy Director of education and later a legislator in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. She was associated with the activities of the All India Women’s Conference and was its secretary before partition, but a chance meeting with Muhammad Ali Jinnah and his sister, Fatima Jinnah in Kashmir, who would later visit the family for banquets, influenced her and she left the conference to concentrate her efforts in women's liberation movements in the pre-independent India.