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'''Atiqa Bano''' (1940 – 4 October 2017) was an Indian educationist and activist for the artistic and cultural heritage of [[Kashmir]]. She established and curated the ''[[Meeras Mahal]]'', a private museum of history and art at [[Noor Bagh]] in Kashmir.<br />
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==Biography==<br />
Atiqa Bano was born in 1940 in [[Sopore]] in the princely state of [[Jammu and Kashmir (princely state)|Jammu and Kashmir]].<ref name=tribuneindia>{{cite news|url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/jammu-kashmir/educationist-atiqa-bano-passes-away/477939.html|title=Educationist Atiqa Bano passes away|newspaper=The Tribune|date=6 October 2017|accessdate=24 October 2017}}</ref> Her father, Molvi Mohammad Yasin Masoodi, was a freedom fighter. He died when she was a few months old, and she was brought up by her mother.<ref name=gk>{{cite web|publisher=Greater Kashmir|url=http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/opinion/atiqa-bano-the-lady-who-single-handedly-built-a-museum/262350.html|title=Atiqa Bano, the lady who single handedly built a museum|author=Muhammad Zaka Ur Rub|date=6 October 2017|accessdate=24 October 2017}}</ref><br />
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Bano obtained an undergraduate degree from the [[Government College for Women, M.A. Road Srinagar|Women's College, Srinagar]], followed by two master's degrees in economics and in Urdu. She then attended [[Banasthali University|Banasthali Vidyapeeth]] in [[Rajasthan]] for a postgraduate degree in education.<ref name=gk/><br />
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Atiqa Bano died of cancer on 4 October 2017 in Sopore, aged 77.<ref name=wire/><br />
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==Career==<br />
===Education===<br />
Atiqa Bano started her career in 1958 as a teacher. She became a schools inspector seven years later. In 1977 she was made Chief Education Officer. In 1994, she became a joint director of school education for the state of [[Jammu and Kashmir (state)|Jammu and Kashmir]].<ref name=tribuneindia/> She retired as the state director of Libraries and Research in 1999.<ref name=wire/><br />
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===Welfare===<br />
In the 1970s, Bano established the ''Majlis-e-Nisa'', an organisation for women's welfare, helping them to achieve financial independence. Part of this was a centre that trained women in sewing skills, which was set up in building she owned that would later also house her museum of Kashmiri heritage.<ref name=wire>{{cite news|newspaper=The Wire|url=https://thewire.in/185777/atiqa-bano-kashmir-heritage/|title=Remembering Atiqa Bano, Who Dedicated Her Life to Preserving Kashmir’s Cultural Heritage|date=9 October 2017|accessdate=24 October 2017|author=Majid Maqbul}}</ref> The organisation also instructed women in calligraphy and the teaching of the Qur'an.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=Kashmir Ink|url=http://www.kashmirink.in/news/article/455.html|title=A Palace of Dreams|author=Muhammad Zaka Ur Rub|date=17 October 2017|accessdate=24 October 2017}}</ref><br />
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===Museum===<br />
Part of Bano's career as schools inspector entailed travel across the state. Encountering the diversity of material culture in Kashmir, she thought of establishing a museum. After retirement, she began then to collect historical and cultural artifacts, especially traditional ware and old manuscripts. Initially she housed them in a derelict hostel building that was part of a college of education that her family owned.<ref name=gk/> In 2001, she set up the Meeras Mahal, a heritage museum.<ref name=wire/><br />
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As the collection grew, she shifted it to a building in Noor Bagh near Sopore. By now, it consisted of handwritten [[Qur'an]]s, Persian, Arabic and Sanskrit manuscripts, historical coins, an entire history of the evolution of the Kashmiri pheran (wedding trousseaus from both the Muslim and the [[Kashmiri Pandit|Pandit]] communities), pottery, and artifacts related to the weaving of [[Pashmina]] textile.<ref name=wire/><ref name=gk/><br />
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In contrast to the Shri Pratap Singh Museum in Srinagar, which concentrated on the royal history and elite art of Kashmir, the Meeras Mahal deals with the material culture of ordinary people.<ref name=gk/> As the museum has received little support from the state, it remains privately maintained.<ref>{{cite web|publisher=Kashmiri Life|url=http://kashmirlife.net/preserving-the-past-382/|author=Majid Maqbool|date=15 August 2009|accessdate=25 October 2017|title=Preserving the past}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|newspaper=[[The Hindu]]|url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/a-museum-and-a-mystic-revive-sopore/article7257067.ece|author=Amitabh Mattoo|title=A museum and a mystic revive Sopore|date=29 May 2015|accessdate=24 October 2017}}</ref><br />
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== References ==<br />
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== External links ==<br />
* [http://meerasmahal.org/index.html Meeras Mahal]{{Dead link|date=October 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}<br />
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<!--- Categories ---><br />
[[Category:People from Sopore]]<br />
[[Category:1940 births]]<br />
[[Category:2017 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Indian educational theorists]]<br />
[[Category:Scholars from Jammu and Kashmir]]</div>>The Banner