Anis Kidwai

Anis Kidwai (1906–1982) was an Indian progressive writer and educationist, the daughter of the educator Rashid Saif, and one of the rare Muslim women to write in the major Indian languages about social reform. Her memoir The Dust of the Caravan recounts the life and struggles of a woman of her milieu, balancing purdah and politics.

Kidwai was a professor of Urdu and an early advocate of women's literacy, training hundreds of girls. Her work, with its candid account of conservative family life and awakening concern for education and social justice, is now studied as an important document of Indian women's history.