Syeda Razia Faiz

Faiz was born on 18 April 1936 into a Bengali Muslim family of Syeds from the village of Talibpur in Murshidabad. Her father, Syed Badrudduja, was a former mayor of Kolkata and a member of the Bengal Legislative Assembly and India's Lok Sabha.[1] Through her paternal grandfather Syed Abdul Ghafur, she was a descendant of Ali, the fourth Caliph of Islam.

Meanwhile, her sister Syeda Sakina Islam, was among the 30 nominated/selected members of the reserved women seats (a quota for the winning party which holds the parliamentary majority) of the same national parliament.[3]

Faiz (middle row, first from left) pictured on a diplomatic delegation, with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai

She was elected to Pakistan National Assembly in the 1960s, representing the country on a number of delegations overseas.[3] During the Bangladesh Liberation War she was also part of the Pakistani delegation to the United Nations. She was placed under house arrest in Bangladesh after its independence.

In 1979, Faiz was elected from the former constituency of Abdus Sabur Khan to Bangladesh's National Parliament.[4] She was the first female elected member of parliament in Bangladesh.[3] In 1989, she was appointed as the minister for women and social welfare[1] Later, she served as the vice president of Bangladesh Nationalist Party until her death.[5]

Faiz was married to Mohammad Abul Faiz, the former chairman of Petrobangla. They had a daughter, Fawzia Alam, two sons, Osman Ershad Faiz and Aman Ashraf Faiz.[1] She died on 15 November 2013.[5]