Fatima Jinnah

Fatimah Jinnah & Sisters

Jinnah family Karachi

Jinnah Youth

Jinnah's - “His father, sister (Fatimah Jinnah) and his wife (Emibai) were living in Khoja Muhalla of Bombay; and it was during these days that Emibai fell victim to an outbreak of cholera” Ruttie Jinnah by Khwaja Razi Haider (Oxford University Press, 2010) (p.4).

Fatima Jinnah was a dental surgeon, biographer, stateswoman, and one of the leading Founding mothers of modern-state of Pakistan. She also played a pivotal role in civil rights and introduced the women's rights movement in the Pakistan Movement. After her brother's death she continued to play a pivotal role in Pakistani politics and in 1965 returned to active politics by running against Ayub Khan in the 1965 elections.

"After the passing away of Mrs Jinnah, the role of companion for Jinnah was filled by his sister, Fatima, the youngest of his four sisters. So, for the next nineteen years, until Jinnah died, Fatima assisted her brother in all his political commitments, and personal care of his health, household matters and needs.

When Pakistan was created, it was obviously Fatima, rather than Mrs Jinnah, who enjoyed Jinnah’s acclaim and witnessed his stately honours. Fatima would share the horse-drawn state coach escorted by the governor general’s mounted cavalry guard with her brother. Fatima’s contribution was nationally recognized; she was awarded the title of Madar-e- Millat (Mother of the Nation), and her birth and death anniversaries are officially observed to this day in Pakistan." https://www.newindianexpress.com/ Published: 22nd December 2020 09:58 PM

"After their father's death in 1901, Jinnah became her guardian, first securing her education as a boarder at a convent when she was nine in 1902 and then enrolling her in a dental college in Calcutta in 1919. In 1923 he helped her set up a clinic in Bombay. All this was done in the face of opposition at home because Muslim society of the time discouraged Western education and Western professions for its women (F. Jinnah 1987: xvii). When Ruttie died, Fatima gave up her career as a dentist at the age of 36 and moved into Jinnah's house to run it and look after Dina; she then accompanied Jinnah on his voluntary exile in London. She accepted the role of her brother's confidante, friend, assistant and chief ally.

Fatima attended the League session in 1937 and all the annual sessions from 1940 onwards when she took on the role of organizing women in favour of the League. She was with her brother on his triumphant plane journey to Pakistan from Delhi and stepped out with him on the soil of the independent nation that he had created in August 1947.

Jinnah's broad Muslim platform was also echoed by his sister years after his death, as quoted by Liaquat Merchant: 'I said, "Miss Jinnah even you are born a Shia." To this she remarked, "I am not a Shia, I am not a Sunni, I am a Mussalman." She also added that the Prophet of Islam has given us Muslim Religion and not Sectarian Religion' (Merchant 1990: 165).

Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity The Search for Saladin By AKBAR S. AHMED