Hapsa Khan

Hapsa Khan was an early Kurdish feminist and nationalist leader who founded the first women's school in Iraq. The organisation was called the Kurdish Women's Association.

She was born in 1891 in Sulaymaniyah to a prominent Kurdish family. She was the daughter of Sheikh Marif and Salma Khan. In 1926 she played a significant role in the foundation of the first school for girls in Sulaymaniyah/Silêmanî "by going from house to house with the teachers to register as many girls as possible, and to even convince parents to send their daughters to school". The German photographer Lotte Errell described Hapsa Khan as a woman “whose husband gets up when she enters the room”.