Early Life
Sufia was born in Shaestabad, Barisal. She was a daughter of a Zamindar family. During her childhood, women's education was prohibited and she could not afford to get academic education. But she learnt Bengali, Hindi, English, Urdu, Arabic, Kurdish and Persian language from her house tutors. In 1918, she went to Kolkata with her mother where she came to meet with Begum Rokeya. She was first married at the age of 11 to her cousin Syed Nehal Hossain, then a law student. Together they had a daughter, Amena Kahar. Hossain died in 1932. Five years later, Sufia married Kamaluddin Ahmed.
In addition to her first daughter, Sufia lated had two other daughters - Sultana Kamal and Saida Kamal and two sons - Shahed Kamal and Sajed Kamal.
She came across prominent South Asian personalities, such as Begum Rokeya, Kazi Nazrul Islam and Mahatma Gandhi.
Sufia Kamal's first poem, Bashanti (Of Spring), was published in Saogat magazine in 1926. In 1931 she became the first Bengali Muslim female to be the member of Indian Women Federation.
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Famous quotes related to early life:
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)