Born in Mumbai, India, on Aug 12, 1917, Zubeida was the second daughter of Sir Sultan Chinoy. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Elphinstone College. Upon her marriage to Habib Rahimtoola, first High Commissioner for Pakistan in the UK, she immersed herself in social welfare work to support Muslim women in British India and Britain and involved herself with development projects mainly revolving around education after the creation of Pakistan. In 1947, her husband was made Pakistan’s first high commissioner to the Court of St. James in London, the UK.
Her father-in-law, Sir Ibrahim Rahimtoola, was the first Indian to be appointed President of the Imperial Indian Legislative Assembly in 1930 and also was President of Mr Jinnah’s Muslim League when it met in Pune in 1933. He was a fervent believer in a separate homeland for the Muslims of India, but died in 1942 before his dream could be realised.
As a founding member of the All Pakistan Women’s Association (APWA), Begum Rahimtoola became the first President of APWA UK whilst living in Britain in 1947 and was simultaneously, the first President of the Jinnah’s All-India Muslim League in the UK.
Mr Jinnah, Fatima Jinnah, Ra’ana Liaquat Ali Khan, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, King George VI, Queen Elizabeth II, Lord and Lady Mountbatten, Sir Winston Churchill, King Hussein of Jordan and Sir Aga Khan III were known to her personally.
She was awarded the Sitara-i-Khidmat in 1960 by the government of Pakistan for her social work. She passed away July 5, 2015 in Karachi.SOURCE: Maqbool Rahimtoola writing in Dawn in 2016.