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SHIRIN FOZDAR
1905—4992
Born in Bombay, India, on 1 March 1905 of Persian Zoroastrian parents who had converted to the Bahá’í Faith, Shirin Behjat Fozdar was by any measure a remarkable person and a truly great woman. She was taken on her first pilgrimage to the Holy Land when she was 11 months old, and took her first steps while holding onto the cloak of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. She was taken on her second pilgrimage when she was six years old, and remembers meeting Shoghi Effendi, who impressed her immensely.
By the age of 17, Shirin Behjat had emerged as a strong and outspoken defender of women’s rights. The year 1922 saw her
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become one of the first Eastern women to speak in public in the East when she addressed a meeting in the town hall of the city of Karachi, the centre of Muslim influence in what was then British India. Karachi’s mayor presided at that historic talk.
In 1925, at the age of 20, she married Dr. Khodadad M. Fozdar, a medical doctor for the Indian Railways who was of ParsiZoroastrian background. He became a Bahá’í and served the Faith with great distinction; he was named a Knight of Baha’u’llah for the Andaman Islands. (See The Bahá’í World V01. XIII, p. 892). He passed away in 1958 and is buried in Choa Chu Kang, Singapore. Five children—three sons and two daughters—were born of that marriage: Jamshed, J ohn, Minoo, Mona, and Zena.
In 1931, Shirin was elected to the Executive Committee of the A11-Asian Women’s Conference, and by 1934 she was representing the Asian Women’s Conference at the League of Nations, pleading with representatives of the great powers at the League to proclaim a Universal Declaration of Women’s Rights.
Returning to India in 1935, she accompanied her husband to his many postings in north and central India, while at the same time bringing up five children, as well as proclaiming the principles of the Faith at every opportunity through personal talks and public addresses. Her fame as the foremost champion of women’s rights in India spread to other lands adjoining the sub-continent, and she travelled to Cey10n(now Sri Lanka) and Burma, feted by members of the nascent women’s rights movements in those lands which owed their formations to their awareness of her pioneer achievements in India.
While the second World War confined Shirin’s activities to India, in 1941 she was urged by Mahatma Gandhi (later to become the Father of Indian independence) to go on his behalf to the city of Ahmedabad, a hotbed of communal strife, and there to speak
- publicly on the unifying principles of the
Bahá’í Faith to the dissenting communities
THE BAHA’t WORLD
of Hindus and Muslims. He also suggested that she establish institutions in Ahmedabad for the upliftment of the “untouchable” social caste in that whole province. Despite considerable personal danger, Shirin was singularly successful in fulfilling the behest of Mahatma Gandhi, Who later was reported to have said that “the Bahá’í Faith is the solace of Mankind”.
During the 1940s, by her tireless work for one of the cardinal principles of the Faithwomen’s rightsw-Mrs. Fozdar won the respect of not only Mahatma Gandhi, but also of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the Founder of Pakistan.
By 1950, the Fozdars’ children had all completed their college education and entered careers of their own. Then, Dr. Fozdar resigned from his job in order to answer the call for pioneers, and he and Mrs. Fozdar settled in Singapore. There, in early 1950 he began his medical practice while Mrs. Fozdar continued to work for women’s rights.
On 2 April 1952, the Singapore Council of Women was born with 2,000 members. Shirin Fozdar was acknowledged as its founder and appointed as its SecretaryGeneral, with the mandate to contact leaders in all walks of life as well as government officials, po1itieians, and members of the media. Her quest was not Without considerable personal physical danger since Singapore in the early 19505 was beset with social unrest caused by lack of proper housing, employment and schools.
In 1954, Shirin spent four months in Saigon, Vietnam, on behalf of the Bahá’í Faith and became the first Bahá’í to step foot in what was then French Indochina. In March of that same year, during a short Visit to Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, she was decorated by Prince Norodom Sihanouk with a gold medal accompanied by the first certificate of Satrei Vatthana (Champion of Women’s Rights). She returned to Singapore from Vietnam and continued work on her chosen goal of women’s emancipation. In 1958 she 1ed a de1egation from Singapore to
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IN MEMORIAM
the Afro-Asian Women’s Conference held in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
In 1959, she was invited by the All China Federation of Women to Visit China, where she was received by some of the top leaders of the Chinese state and allowed to travel extensively around the country. Upon her return from China, she was invited by the US. State Department to travel extensively in the United States lecturing on her favourite ideals.
Back in Singapore, she strenuously canvassed for a Women’s Charter and met with Mr. Lee Kuan Yew to explain the necessity of granting such a Charter and encouraged the adoption of “one man one woman” on the platform of the People’s Action Party. Upon its Victory in the general elections, the Party enacted the “Women’s Charter” on 6 April 1960, and monogamous marriage thus became law. Following on its heels the Government of Singapore passed other acts such as the Inheritance Act in 1966, the F amily Provision, and acts completing ordinances giving more consideration to women.
Others may have been content to rest on those laurels. Not so Shirin, who, with a number of volunteers, initiated the formation of the first girls’ club in the J 00 Chiat Welfare Centre in Singapore and also became the first woman to address an audience at Changi Prison on the subject of reformation and becoming useful members of society.
In 1961, at the age of 56, Shirin left for Bangkok, Thailand, to proclaim the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith. There she received an audience with His Majesty Bhurnibol Adulyadej, Rama IX of Thailand. Besides obtaining wide recognition for the Faith, Mrs. Fozdar also founded the Santitham Vittayakom School at Yasothon in the Ubol Province of northeast Thailand. This school became the largest co—educational institution in the province, providing secretarial and horne-economic education to help youth from straying into crime in the cities.
Shirin returned to her beloved Singapore after a decade of activity in Thailand and
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Slzzrin F ozdar
continued her work with the Women’s Council and the expanding institutions of the Bahá’í Faith there. Many accolades came her way from the humble and the high, not only in Asia, but also from the world at large. Singapore’s own Sinathamby Rajaratnam, the F oreign Minister for nearly a quarter century wrote:
I have known Mrs. Fozdar and the single minded way in which she struggled to promote and safeguard the rights of women and to enhance the status of women in our country. She did this without regard to race or creed and I would like to join with the others in recognition of her services to promote justice for women in Asia”. And the famous author Han Suyin adds, “All her life has been a dedication to justice, to humanity and I can never forget it. She is an example to womankind. I am happy to have been her humble friend.
Those of us who knew her remember that one of her favourite anecdotes was, “If Eve ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge first
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and then induced Adam to also taste of it, did that not prove it was the woman who attained to knowledge first and that the first act of obedience was by man to woman and not the other way around?!”
Rare is the individual whose acts inspire others to dedicate their own lives to improving the human condition, especially the lot of women, the world over. To those who knew her, and from whose life they and others to follow shall continue to draw heroic inspiration, Shirin Fozdar was one such person.
Shirin spent the last year of her life in hospitals in India and Singapore, during
THE Bahá’í WORLD
which time she also suffered a massive heart attack in Bombay. However, her indomitable spirit enabled her to return to spend her last days in her beloved Singapore.
When she died, she left behind five children, seventeen grandchildren, and twenty great-grandchildren. There is no doubt in their minds that, however bright their stars may shine—however eminent they become in their professions or in their service to the Bahá’í Faithuthey will be but pale reflections of that brilliant orb from which it is their honour to have been born.
Written by her children: JAMSHED, JOHN, MINoo, MONA, AND ZENA
