Salma Al-Malaika

Salma Abdul Razzaq al-Malaika (Also transliterated as Sulaymah al-Malāʿikah.) Al-Malaika was the older sister of the poet and lawyer .

Poetry Al-Malaika initially wrote poetry in secret, and educated herself in Arabic, Andalusian and Umayyad poetry, as well as Arabic history and pre-Islamic literature. She wrote using the pen name Umm Nizār. (Al-Malaika's oldest son was named Nizār.) She wrote feminist verse, glorifying the role of Arab women in history and emphasising the predicament of modern Iraqi women, urging them to overcome difficulties as the "victims of ignorance, stagnation, and narrow-mindedness". Among the topics she addressed were the 1940 uprising of Rashid Ali al-Gaylani that led to the coup against the British, the 1948 Al-Wathbah uprising in Baghdad, and the 1948 tragedy of Palestine.

In 1965, al-Malaika's husband and daughter posthumously published The Song of Glory (Unshūdat al-Majd). , with whom she had 7 children. Her daughter was the poet Nazik al-Malaika, known for being one of the first Iraqi poets to use free verse.

On 26 June 1953 al-Malaika died in London, aged 45.