Syeda Razia Faiz (18 April 1936 â 15 November 2013) was a prominent Bangladeshi politician and government minister. She served as a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan in the 1960s. In 1979, she became the first (and only) woman to be elected as one of 300 members of the Jatiya Sangsad (Parliament of Bangladesh). She was also Minister of Women and ChildrenâÂÂs Affairs during the Ershad regime.
Faiz was born on 18 April 1936 into a Bengali Muslim family of Syeds from the village of Talibpur in Murshidabad. Her father, Syed Badrudduja, was a mayor of Kolkata and a member of the Bengal Legislative Assembly and India's Lok Sabha.
Meanwhile, her sister Syeda Sakina Islam, was among the 30 nominated members for reserved womenâÂÂs seats (a quota for the party which holds the majority) in the same national parliament.
Faiz was elected to the Pakistan National Assembly in the 1960s under President Ayub Khan, representing the country on a number of delegations overseas, demonstrating a unique moment in history where she was a Pakistani stateswoman concurrently to her fatherâÂÂs membership of IndiaâÂÂs Lok Sabha.
During the Bangladesh Liberation War she was also part of the Pakistani delegation to the United Nations. She was placed under house arrest in Bangladesh after its independence.
In 1979, Faiz was elected from the former constituency of Abdus Sabur Khan to Bangladesh's Parliament. She was the first female elected member of parliament in Bangladesh. In 1989, she was appointed as the minister for women and social welfare during the regime of Hussain Muhammad Ershad. Later, she served as the Vice President of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party until her death.
Faiz was married to Mohammad Abul Faiz, chairman of Petrobangla. They had a daughter, Fawzia Alam, and two sons, Osman Ershad Faiz and Aman Ashraf Faiz. She died on 15 November 2013.