Étoile

Coronation Performance of the Beggar's Opera. Rialto Theatre. 21st May 1953. Original programme.

51-6950 — London: Rialto Theatre 1953. . Folio. 25.5 x 35.5 cm. Original covers soiled. 4pp. with color portrait of Olivier.Coronation Performance of the Beggar's Opera. Rialto Theatre. 21st May 1953.The personal copy of Begum Ra’ana Liaquat Ali Khan 1905–1990 who was a Pakistani diplomat and the country’s first female governor.She was born Sheila Irene Pant on 13 February 1905 in Almora British India today’s India to a Brahmin family who had converted to Christianity two generations prior.Academically brilliant she graduated from the University of Lucknow in 1927 with bachelor’s degrees in economics and theology. She obtained a double master’s degree in economics and sociology in 1929. In 1931 she became professor of economics at Indraprastha College in Delhi where she met her future husband lawyer Liaquat Ali Khan when he visited to deliver a lecture on law.The couple married in 1932 despite her family’s objection. The bride converted to Islam and took the name Begum Ra’ana. She became involved with the Muslim League devoting herself to creating political consciousness among the Muslim women in British India.After the Partition in 1947 Liaquat Ali Khan became Pakistan’s first prime minister. As the first First Lady of Pakistan Begum Ra’ana founded or helped establish organisations that uplifted women’s rights and women’s public role such as the Pakistan Women’s National Guard PWNG the Women’s Naval Reserves and All Pakistan Women’s Association APWA. London: Rialto Theatre, 1953. unknown