Online Special lecture on Princess Niloufer held at MANUU
The crux of her lecture was to bring out the role of elite women as global active agents empowering the underprivileged women for better social status, education and medical facilities.
Hyderabad: H.K.Sherwani Centre for Deccan Studies of Maulana Azad National Urdu University yesterday organized a special online lecture on Princess Niloufer.
Prof. Betül Başaran, Professor of History and Coordinator of the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, USA was the speaker and Prof. Syed Ainul Hasan, Vice Chancellor chaired the lecture.
The lecture was a preview of Prof. Başaran’s research on the legacy and impact of Princess Niloufer (1916-1989) for her Fulbright Global Scholar Research award. The crux of her lecture was to bring out the role of elite women as global active agents empowering the underprivileged women for better social status, education and medical facilities.
In her lecture, Prof. Basaran threw light on the lifestyle of Princess Niloufer, her marriage, her roles as socialite, philanthropist and fashionista. When the princess was seven, the Ottoman empire had officially fallen and she had to leave Istanbul and move to France with her mother in 1924, where she learned to read and write French along with Urdu. Niloufer’s relationship with Hyderabad begins after her marriage with Moazzam Jah, the Nizam’s younger son, in 1931. Princess was counted among the ten most beautiful women in the world. Her beauty transcended into her social service activities that made her take up the cause of women and children’s health issues. For this cause she started the Hyderabad Women and Children’s Medical Aid Association which took shape in the form of famous Niloufer hospital, she added.
Professor Başaran’s host institutions in India will be the Centre for Historical Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, and the H.K.Sherwani Centre for Deccan Studies at the Maulana Azad National Urdu University in Hyderabad.
Prof. Salma Ahmed Farooqui, Director & Dr. A. Subash, Assistant Professor, H.K.Sherwani Centre for Deccan Studies, MANUU were the organizers. The lecture was well attended by academicians and prominent people from across the world.
