Zehra Fyzee

Zehra Fyzee (1866 – 23 December 1940) was an Indian writer, playwright and editor, the eldest of the three Fyzee sisters of Bombay. A leading contributor to the Urdu women's journals of the early twentieth century, she published her collected articles as Mazamin and a play in 1921 and a book on women's health in 1934, and as an editor she prepared the writings of both her sisters and of her mother for the press. ^{1 2}

She was the eldest of the three daughters of Hasanally Feyzhyder and Amirunnisa Fyzee; her sisters were Nazli Begum (1874–1968) and Atiya Fyzee (1877–1967). The sisters were raised at Mazagaon, Mumbai, under the influence of their great-uncle Badruddin Tyabji, the judge and Congress president, in the Fyzee branch of the extended Tyabji clan. All three sisters had a modern education, visited Europe, and wrote books and periodical pieces. ^{1 3}

Fyzee was a regular contributor to the Urdu women's magazines Tehzeeb-e-Niswan, Khatun and Ismat. In 1921 her articles were collected and published as Mazamin, and her play Mal-i-khatun ('Women's Riches') appeared in the same year; a book on women's health, Tandarusti Hazar Naimat ('Health is Wealth'), followed in 1934. ¹

Her deepest mark was editorial. When Atiya kept her London diary in 1906–07 and sent the entries home, it was Zehra who screened and edited them before passing them to Muhammadi Begum, who printed them in Tehzeeb-e-Niswan; the series made Atiya famous, and the diary appeared in book form as Zamana-i-Tahsil in 1921, alongside two titles by Zehra herself. Zehra also edited her sister Nazli's travelogue Sair-i-Yurop ('Travel to Europe') and edited and arranged the publication of her mother Amirunnisa's poetry books, Yadgari-Amira and Amin. ^{1 3}

In 1905 she presided over a women's gathering connected to the Muhammadan Educational Conference. In 1914 she was elected to the working committee of the All India Muslim Ladies Conference, the Anjuman-i-Khawatin-i-Islam which the three sisters had helped to establish at Aligarh that year. She died on 23 December 1940. ^{1 3}