Our Founder

In those days, it was rare in Allahabad, and also elsewhere, for a girl from a pardanashin family to go up to the University. But Jamila Khatoon Hashmi was an independent minded young girl. She wanted to undertake higher studies and make her own way in life. With that end in view, she enrolled in the Govt. Training College, Allahabad, and obtained, in 1950, the degree of L.T. from there.

Jamila Khatoon Hashmi was then appointed Lecturer at the Hameedia Girls’ Inter College, Allahabad.Shortly thereafter, she was given charge of Principal in that institution and served with distinction until about the end of the year 1953. Her teaching, administration in addition to good looks and dress sense, won the hearts of the students and teachers alike. Many of her students remember her vividly and with admiration even thirty or forty years later. Owing to certain administrative differences with the then Management of Hamidia Girls’ Inter College, Jamila Khatoon Hashmi decided to leave the institution.

Her departure was followed by the unprecedented event of above a third of the students and staff leaving Hamidia with the determination to follow Jamila Khatoon Hashmi wherever she took them.

It was under these circumstances that Jamila Khatoon Hashmi’s father, Syed Abdul Qadir, a well-known landowner and social worker of Allahabad, morally supported by some leading citizens of Allahabad, established the Kidwai Memorial Girls’ Inter College (named after the recently deceased Rafi Ahmed Kidwai) at 196, Himmatganj, Allahabad, in a large rented building. Among his supporters may be mentioned Muhammad Baqar Usmani, prominent lawyer, Syed Husain Haidar, General Manager of A. H. Wheeler chain of bookstores, Rai Saligram Jaiswal, leading social and political activist. Many High Court Judges, for instance Mr Justice Mushtaq Ahmad, was also among the earliest supporters of the College.

The Kidwai Girls’ Inter College was initially only recognized as a Primary School. Children of higher classes were prepared in regular classes and sent up for the Board Examinations as private candidates.

In 1955, Jamila Khatoon Hashmi married Shamsur Rahman Faruqi (then spelt Farooqi) who earned name and fame as a distinguished author in Urdu and English. He served in the Indian Post Office in senior positions and as Director, Bureau for the Promotion of Urdu, and later as Joint Secretary to the Govt. of India in the Ministry of Energy. He retired as Member of the Postal Services Board, Govt. of India, New Delhi. He also served as Adjunct Professor, Dept of South Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and later as Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan Professor in the Faculty of Humanities, Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi. He was awarded Padma Shri in 2008 and the Govt. of Pakistan’s award Sitara-e Imtiaz, in 2009.After marriage, Jamila Khatoon Hashmi became known as Jamila Farooqi.

Jamila Farooqi also established the Al-Hamra Farooqi Girls’ Inter College, Chakia, Allahabad, on her own land donated by her as a recognized Waqf for the benefit of the two educational institutions. The day to day management of both the institutions is the responsibility of a Managing Committee duly recognized by the Department of Education, U.P