This is a photograph of Begum Ra'ana Liaquat Ali Khan, a political activist, women’s rights campaigner and diplomat from Pakistan. She was a prominent campaigner with the Pakistan movement, working together with her husband Liaquat Ali Khan, who would become Pakistan’s first prime minister in 1947. Begum held several political and diplomatic posts and continued to fight against gender-based discrimination and inequality until the end of her life in 1990.

This image features in the book Challenge and Change: Speeches by Begum Ra’ana Liaquat Ali Khan, which was published by the All Pakistan Women’s Association (APWA) in 1980. Begum founded the APWA in 1949 with the aim of helping women refugees in the new state of Pakistan. Today, the APWA still campaigns for women’s rights and provides practical support for women in Pakistan and Pakistani women in the UK.