Ra'ana Liaquat Ali Khan

Ra'ana Liaquat Ali Khan (13 February 1905 – 13 June 1990) was a Pakistani stateswoman and economist, the wife of Liaquat Ali Khan and the first First Lady of Pakistan from 1947 to 1951. ^{1 2} Born Sheila Irene Pant at Almora into a Christian family, she converted to Islam at her marriage in 1932 and took the name Gul-i-Rana. ^{1 3} She founded the All Pakistan Women's Association (APWA) in 1949, was the first Muslim woman delegate to the United Nations and Pakistan's first woman ambassador, and the first woman governor of a Pakistani province, Sindh (1973–1976); she is known by the title Madar-e-Pakistan ("Mother of Pakistan"). ¹

Sheila Irene Pant was born on 13 February 1905 at Almora in the United Provinces, into a Kumaoni Christian family; the Pants were Brahmins who had accepted Christianity around 1871, as the Urdu article recounts. ^{1 3} She took a master's degree in economics at the University of Lucknow and taught at Indraprastha College, Delhi, where she met Liaquat Ali Khan in 1931 when he visited to deliver a lecture on law. ¹ They married in 1932; the Urdu article recounts that the imam of the Jama Masjid performed the nikah, that Irene accepted Islam and was named Gul-i-Rana, while the English article states that she converted to Islam at the marriage and took the name Begum Ra'ana (Gul-i-Rana) Liaqat Ali Khan. ^{3 1} No consulted source names a school for her, so her school is not recorded in this museum. ^{1 3 4}

Ra'ana was one of the leading women of the Pakistan Movement, an executive member of the Pakistan Movement committee working under Muhammad Ali Jinnah and his economic adviser. ^{1 2} In 1942, when Japan seemed close to attacking India, she organised women and formed a small volunteer medical corps in Delhi for nursing and first aid. ¹ As First Lady (1947–1951) she launched programmes for women's development in the newly founded country. ^{1 2}

Ra'ana founded the All Pakistan Women's Association (APWA) in 1949 and presided over it in its first years; it became the country's leading framework for women's social, educational and health work. ^{1 3} The museum's data holds no group entity for APWA, so no founder edge is drawn in her record; the founding is recorded here and in her summary. ¹

After her husband's assassination in 1951, Ra'ana began a career as a stateswoman that lasted more than two decades: in 1952 she was the first Muslim woman delegate to the United Nations. ¹ In 1954 the Government of Pakistan appointed her ambassador to the Netherlands — Pakistan's first woman ambassador — and she served until 1961, also becoming doyen of the diplomatic corps there. ¹ She then represented Pakistan as ambassador to Italy and Tunisia (1965–1966). ¹ On her return she taught economics at the Ra'ana Liaquat Ali Khan Government College of Home Economics until 1973, and Government College University, Lahore, awarded her an honorary doctorate in economics in 1967. ¹ In the 1970s she joined Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's government, and Bhutto appointed her Governor of Sindh; she took the oath on 15 February 1973, becoming the first woman governor of a Pakistani province and the first chancellor of the University of Karachi. ¹

Ra'ana died at Karachi on 13 June 1990. ^{1 3} She is considered one of the greatest women leaders Pakistan has produced; she received the title Madar-e-Pakistan ("Mother of Pakistan") in 1950 and the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights in 1978, and she remains a symbol of selfless service and the uplift of women. ¹

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