Final year Creative Writing student, Sharmin Ahmed, shares powerful stories from South Asian Women.

Rosa Parks, Ada Lovelace, Marie Curie, Maya Angelou...women who earned their right to be remembered. But, how many of these women can you name are South Asian? I, despite being one, couldn't seem to name one.

At school, we learnt about many women who have left their marks on the world but most of these women were white, black women only getting their chance to shine during black history month and often only African American women too. No mentions of the black women who changed the grounds of the very country we stand on right now. Receiving little to no praise at all, South Asians picked the shortest of the straws.

I'd like to change that in this blog post here, in educating myself about the powerful women cut from the same cloth as me, let me tell you their stories.

Sophia Duleep Singh (1876 – 1948)

As the daughter to an exiled Sikh king known as the last Maharaja of Lahore, and with Queen Victoria as her godmother, Sophia Duleep Singh began her life as no ordinary woman. She had a colourful cultural background, being South Asian from her father and Ethiopian and German from her mother mixed with her aristocratic upbringing. She grew up a socialite, encouraged by the late Queen Victoria to attend parties, raise championship dogs and partake in many sports. A reputation that would fall to her benefit later on.

Following in her father's footsteps, Sophia snuck back to her blood country India, despite the British authorities forbidding their return. She bore witness to the land that was stolen from her family and her people, stricken with dire poverty by the very people she claimed as friends. Slipping under the guise of British agents watching her every move, Sophia met Indian independence activists, such as Lala Lajpat Rai and Gopal Krishna Gokhale, and sided with their cause, no longer ignorant of the suffering of her people. She was to return to England a radicalized woman determined to change the world.

Sophia used her newfound determination to lead the Women’s Tax Resistance League alongside the woman's right to vote movement. Her privileged connection to Queen Victoria was used to boost the movement and fund the suffragette group, selling suffragette newspapers outside Hampton Court Palace despite threats to evict her. The nobles and authorities at the time were exasperated with her refusal to pay taxes and her bombardment of government headquarters, prosecuting her several times. But, Sophia kept at it. She was a force to be reckoned with. Unstoppable. Untameable.

She would continue to support her blood country and lead the woman's suffrage movement in India, and elsewhere in the world, soon after her win in England. A fighter until her very last breath.

Watch a short video on Sophia

Razia Sultana (1205 – 1240)

A scheming wicked not actually step-mother step-mother. Nobles plotting behind her back. Defying gender roles. Razia's story is a riveting one. She was declared heir to the Delhi Sultanate after impressing her father, former slave turned Sultan, Iltutmish when he left her in charge of Delhi during 1231–1232 to seize Gwalior. Razia proved her worth, with her military and political skills, exceeding her brothers and other aristocrats around her age.

However, tensions rose as the other rulers of the time could not dare accept a woman as their Sultan. An appointed female heir, let alone ruler, was unheard of before Razia. Iltutmish never discriminated against his daughter, providing her with the same education as her brothers in martial arts and administration, allowing her to blossom into the woman she'd become known for. Bold. Assertive. Valiant. She commanded the general public to support her and instigated a mob to attack the palace and capture Shah Turkan, her father's concubine, who planned to execute Razia as she placed her son, Razia's half-brother, Ruknuddin Firuz in charge under her control.

Razia became the first female Muslim ruler in South Asia and the only woman to rule the Delhi Sultanate. A brave warrior who protected her kingdom, demanded that the non-muslims of her country were respected under her rule, and did not back down from those challenging her status as a woman. She rode on the elephants through the streets of Delhi instead of staying inside as women were expected to and dressed in traditional male attire, adorning an androgynous look.

During her tenure, she built hundreds of libraries and schools, the very first in Delhi, and encouraged the studies of science and literature from cultures all around the world, both religious and secular, to be integrated into society.

Watch more about Razia's story

Sarojini Naidu (1879 – 1949)

The Nightingale of India whose birth, 13th February, is set as Nationals Women’s Day in India. She was born to a Bengali family and qualified for the highest rank in university study when she was just twelve and would move to England a few years later to enrol at King's College and then Cambridge on a scholarship from the Nizam of Hyderabad after she impressed him with her play, Maher Muneer, the start of her prolific writing career.

Sarojini became an increasingly popular activist for India's independence and women's rights, particularly on women's education, and became the first Indian woman to become the president of the Indian National Congress, going on to become the first female Governor of an Indian state. She helped lead the Women's Indian Association and advocated for universal women's suffrage.

She joined Ghandi's non-violent movement against the Imperial British rule and would promote non-violent resistance in the United States. Ghandi did not permit women to join the Salt March, a twenty-four-day, non-violent march in colonial India against the British salt monopoly, but Sarojini alongside several other female activists persuaded him otherwise. He would then appoint Sarojini as the new leader of the campaign after his arrest in 1930. She too was arrested once in 1931 for participating in the Second Round Table Conference and again arrested and jailed for twenty-one months in 1942 for partaking in the Quit India Movement.

Sarojini like Razia and Sophia refused to accept the meaning of quitting. Never backing down without a fight. These women were spearheads for the future in one way or another, defying all odds and their actions continue to ripple through into the modern day and beyond.

Discover more about Sarojini