Fatima Shah

Fatima Shah (1914 – October 12, 2002) was a Pakistani physician, social worker and advocate for the blind in Pakistan. She was the founder of the Pakistan Association of the Blind (PAB) and one of the founding members of the All Pakistan Women's Association. She was also the first woman to become president of the International Federation of the Blind.

Biography Shah was born in 1914 in Bhera. She was admitted to Lady Hardinge Medical College in Delhi on a MacDonald scholarship of merit. After partition in 1947, she came to Pakistan, but could not go back due to the political conflict between both countries .

From 1947, Shah worked for the rehabilitation of refugee women who migrated to Pakistan from India, following independence in 1947. Shah was also one of the founding members of the APWA All Pakistan Women's Association which was founded in 1949. In the US, she became one of the founding members of the International Federation of the Blind (IFB) in New York.

When she returned Pakistan, she lobbied the Pakistani government to remove the health clause because people with disabilities were being deprived of jobs.

Shah died on October 12, 2002, and was buried in the Defence graveyard in Karachi. She was awarded Takeo Iwahashi Award at Gothenburg, Sweden for her work with self-help organizations for the blind. The Pakistani government awarded her a Tamgha-i-Imtiaz.

Selected publications