Kamila Tyabji | |
|---|---|
 Kamila Tyabji as a young woman, from a 1937 newspaper. | |
| Born | Kamila Faiz Badruddin Tyabji 14 February 1918 Mumbai |
| Died | 17 May 2004 (aged 86) Mumbai |
| Occupation(s) | Lawyer, philanthropist |
| Family | Tyabji family |
Kamila Tyabji (14 February 1918 – 17 May 2004) was an Indian philanthropist and lawyer. As a lawyer, Tyabji was renowned for being London's only woman barrister and the first to argue a case before the Privy Council.[1]
Kamila Faiz Badruddin Tyabji was born in Bombay, a member of the prominent Muslim Tyabji family of that city. Her father was Faiz Badruddin Tyabji, a judge, and her mother Salima was a member of the Bombay Legislative Assembly.[2][3] Her grandfather was Badruddin Tyabji (1844-1906), third president of the Indian National Congress. Her brother was Badruddin Tyabji, Laila Tyabji is her niece, and Zafar Futehally was her first cousin.[citation needed]
Tyabji attended St. Xavier's College in Bombay, and St Hugh's College, Oxford; at the latter school, she was a classmate of Indira Gandhi's. She was one of the earliest Muslim women to study at Oxford,[4] arriving in 1937,[5] only two years younger than Velia Abdel-Huda, who is credited as first.[6]
Tyabji wore "brilliant silken saris" while she practiced insurance law in London for 25 years,[2] and hosted a BBC television program, Asian Club, with Shakuntala Shrinagesh, between 1953 and 1956.[7][8] In 1960 she was founder and first chair of the Women's Indian Association of the United Kingdom.[9]
After returning to India in the mid-1960s, Tyabji founded a charity, the Women's India Trust (WIT) in 1968, to improve women's economic independence by supporting home-based work including sewing, embroidery, and cookery.[2][10] She began the Kamila Trust in the UK, to support the work of the WIT and open a London shop, Kashi, to sell WIT goods.[11]
Tyabji wrote Limited Interests in Muhammadan Law (1949),[12] "Education and Life: Some Rethinking for Commonwealth Women" (1966),[13] and "Polygamy, Unilateral Divorce, and Mahr in Muslim Law as Interpreted in India". She was India's representative on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.[4]
Tyabji died in Mumbai in 2004, aged 86 years.[4] WIT continues working for women's economic independence, and runs a nursing home and teacher training school in addition to its original activities.[2] The Kamila Tyabji WIT Centre in Panvel was named in her honour.[11][14][15] In 2014, she was posthumously awarded the KarmaVeer Puraskaar, for her lifetime achievements.[16]
