Dr Abdul Jabbar Khan, Karachi (2026)

24/07/2026

21/07/2026

18/07/2026

As she started her professional career with *Daily Dawn* newspaper, the management told her to stick to cooking and child-rearing instead.

She built her own magazine instead.
And used it to bring down a military dictator.
*Zaib-un-Nissa Hamidullah* Born December 1918 in Calcutta. Daughter of *Syed Wajid Ali*, a Cambridge-educated writer who translated Tagore into English and Iqbal into Bengali.
A family that breathed literature. She published her first poem in *The Illustrated Weekly* of India in 1933 at age 15. At 18 she won a poetry competition in England's Daily Mirror.
After partition she moved to Karachi with her husband and began writing a column for Dawn. She became Pakistan's first female political commentator. Her editor let her write on the condition she stuck to feminine matters.
She wrote about politics anyway.
In 1951 the Dawn editor sent her a letter. It is still in the archives:
*“Dear Mrs. Hamidullah. You will have noticed that we could not use your article last week. The reason was that it dealt with problems other than feminine.”*
She read the letter. Resigned. And in 1952 founded her own magazine.
*‘The Mirror’*
Pakistan's first female editor and publisher. Her own press. Her own voice. No editor to answer to.
In 1955 she became the first woman to address *Al-Azhar University* in Cairo. One of the oldest universities on earth. She spoke about *Kashmir*. The audience was shocked. Thrilled. Divided.
She did not care.
In 1957 she published a ferocious editorial defending *Prime Minister Suhrawardy* after *Iskander Mirza* forced him out. The government banned the Mirror for six months. Advised her to apologise.
She took them to the Supreme Court instead.
She won. *First woman journalist in Pakistan to successfully challenge press censorship in court*.

In October 1962 she published Please Mr. President. An open letter to *Ayub Khan* about the blood staining Pakistan's streets after student protests. She printed his photo upside down as a sign of protest.
“Ayub Khan called her rashly emotional”. Then replied publicly to her letter. Because even he knew she could not be ignored.
*The Mirror was banned twice*. Government advertising was withdrawn. She kept publishing.
In 1969 she reprinted Please Mr. President alongside a new editorial. No, thank you, Sir. Pakistan will continue to erupt as long as you remain its President.
Ayub Khan abdicated months later.
*A street in Karachi is named after her. Zaibunnisa Street. Previously called Elphinstone Street m.* Named by the British. Renamed for a woman who spent her life defying exactly their kind of power.
She died September 10, 2000.
The editor who told her to write about cooking accidentally created Pakistan's most fearless journalist.*Zaib-un-Nissa Hamidullah*