Salma Sobhan (née Ikramullah) (August 11, 1937 - December, 2003), was a prominent female
Bangladeshi barrister,
human rights activist and
academic.
Family and education
Salma Rasheeda Akhtar Banu, known as Salma Sobhan, was born in London in 1937 to a prominent Indian Muslim family. Her father
Mohammed Ikramullah was the first foreign secretary of
Pakistan and mother Begum
Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah, one of the first 2 women members in Pakistan's Constituent Assembly, later serving as Pakistan's delegate to the UN and Ambassador to Morocco. Her mother was a member of the Suhrawardy family of Calcutta. On her mother's side she was a niece of
Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, premier of
Bengal and
Prime Minister of Pakistan, and on her father's side she was a niece of
Muhammad Hidayatullah,
Vice President and
Chief Justice of India. Her sister is the
Princess Sarvath of Jordan.
Early career
Salma was educated at
Westonbirt School in England and studied law at
Girton College,
Cambridge, in 1958. She was called to the Bar from
Lincoln's Inn in 1959 and became the first Pakistani woman barrister. She began working with a law firm in Karachi. After her marriage she moved to Dhaka, where her husband taught economics. She also began teaching at the law faculty at Dhaka University. She also worked with Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs (Bilia) from 1981 to 1988, and served as editor of the Supreme Court Law Reports (SCLR) for several years.