Asma al-Zahawi

Asma al-Zahawi, was an Iraqi women's rights activist.^[1] She belonged to the pioneer generation of the first organized women's movement in Iraq.

Asma al-Zahawi was the daughter of the mufti Mohammad Fedi Al Zahawi and the sister of the poet and Professor Jamil Sidqi al-Zahawi. In 1923 her brother helped her to publish the first women's magazine in Iraq, Layla,^[2] which was edited by Paulina Hassoun.

In 1923 she was one of the group of sixty elite women to became one of the co-founders of the first women's organization in Iraq, the Women's Awakening Club, and served as its president.^[3] As the leader of the Women's Awakening Club, she campaigned against seclusion and for women's education and professional life.