
Father & daughter
a political autobiography
Begum Jahan Ara Shahnawaz (1896-1979) is one of the most distinguished Muslim women to have participated in the political life of India and Pakistan. Ably groomed by her father, the late Sir Muhammad Shafi, she represented Muslim and Indian women both abroad and at home with consummate skill and grace. After the creation of Pakistan, she was an active member of the Pakistan Constituent Assembly. In her autobiography she has retold the story of her life and interwoven it with a record of the career of her distinguished father. The book contains valuable extracts from the diary of the late Sir Muhammad Shafi. // This volume forms a part of the series called "The Subcontinent Divided: A New Beginning" edited by Dr Ian Talbot, Professor of South Asian Studies at Coventry University. This book has been introduced by Dr Muhammad Reza Kazimi, an eminent scholar of Pakistan Studies and Urdu Literature.
Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.
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What the reading experience may hold
A fuller profile for choosing with more confidence—not just another copy of the preview.
Nonfiction
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Balanced tone · Steady pace
A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.
A good fit if…
Readers who want a thoughtful experience and enjoy noticing the connections beneath a book’s surface story.
This book's DNA
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Spoiler-Free Emotional Arc
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A quick reading snapshot
Edition facts and catalog signals to help you decide whether this book fits what you want to read next.
- ISBN-13
- 978-0-1957-9646-9
- Language
- English
- Edition record
- OL3603029M
A more thoughtful way into this book
This guide uses the edition details and category signals above to help you choose deliberately. It does not replace the author's work or a full review.
A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.
Begin with its place in Nonfiction, then notice where the book resists that label.
Read for connection, not completion.
Mark one passage that sharpens the book's central concern and one that complicates it. That tension often reveals more than a quick summary.
Three questions to carry with you
- Whose perspective organizes the story, and whose perspective remains outside it?
- Which sources or lived experiences carry the author’s central argument?
- How does the book change the way you understand its larger subject?
Editorial framework by Wesley Bryan, BookenDeX Founder and Editor.







