Bangladesh Mahila Samiti is a women's organization in Bangladesh descended from the All Pakistan Women's Association that was originally established by Lady Rana Liaquat Ali (wife of the Prime Minister of Pakistan) in 1948. The Dhaka branch was opened in 1949. [1] The organization works to improve awareness of legal issues, and to fund education and health access for women. [1]
Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It shares land borders with India and Myanmar (Burma). The country's maritime territory in the Bay of Bengal is roughly equal to the size of its land area. Bangladesh is the world's eighth most populous country as well as its most densely-populated, to the exclusion of small island nations and city-states. Dhaka is its capital and largest city, followed by Chittagong, which has the country's largest port. Bangladesh forms the largest and easternmost part of the Bengal region. Bangladeshis include people from a range of ethnic groups and religions. Bengalis, who speak the official Bengali language, make up 98% of the population. The politically dominant Bengali Muslims make the nation the world's third largest Muslim-majority country. Islam is the official religion of Bangladesh.
The All Pakistan Women's Association, or APWA, Urdu: آل پاکستان ویمنز ایسوسی ایشن as it is commonly known, is a voluntary, non-profit and non-political Pakistani organisation whose fundamental aim is the promotion of moral, social and economic welfare of the women of Pakistan.
Begum Ra'ana Liaqat Ali Khan, was one of the leading woman figures in the Pakistan Movement along with her husband Liaquat Ali Khan, and a career economist, and prominent stateswoman from the start of the cold war till the fall and the end of the cold war. Ra'anna was one of the leading woman politicians and nationwide respected woman personalities who started her career in the 1940s and witnessed key major events in Pakistan. She was one of the leading and pioneering woman figures in the Pakistan Movement and served as the executive member of Pakistan Movement committee working under Muhammad Ali Jinnah. She also served as economic adviser to Jinnah's Pakistan Movement Committee and later became Spouse of the Prime Minister of Pakistan when her husband Liaqat Khan Ali became Pakistan's first prime minister. As Spouse of the Prime Minister of Pakistan, she launched programs for woman's development in the newly founded country. Later, she would start her career as a stateswoman that would last a decade.
