Salma al-Malaika

Al-Malaika was born in on the 29 February 1908 in Baghdad, Ottoman Empire (present-day, Iraq) to a Shīʿite family. Al-Malaika was the older sister of the poet and lawyer (). ==Poetry==

Al-Malaika initially wrote poetry in secret, and educated herself in Arabic, Andalusian and Umayyad poetry, as well as Arabic history and pre-Islamic literature. She wrote using the pen name Umm Nizār. Al-Malaika's poetry was traditional, both "in form and in its use of linguistic ornament". She wrote feminist verse, glorifying the role of Arab women in history and emphasising the predicament of modern Iraqi women, urging them to overcome difficulties as the "victims of ignorance, stagnation, and narrow-mindedness". Among the topics she addressed were the 1940 uprising of Rashid Ali al-Gaylani that led to the coup against the British, the 1948 Al-Wathbah uprising in Baghdad, and the 1948 tragedy of Palestine. In 1965, al-Malaika's husband and daughter posthumously published The Song of Glory (Unshūdat al-Majd). ==Personal life==

In 1923, al-Malaika married Sadiq al-Malaika, a poet and Arabic teacher, with whom she had 7 children. Her daughter was the poet Nazik al-Malaika, known for being one of the first Iraqi poets to use free verse. On 26 June 1953 al-Malaika died in London, aged 45. ==Notes==