regarded as a landmark in the history of modern
Arabic literature. Another impact of modernity
has been the publication of women’s autobi-
ographies, including those of feminists such
as hUda al-shaaraWi (1879–1947) and Fatima
mernissi (b. 1940) as well as Islamic activists
such as zaynab al-ghazali (d. 2005). For many,
the Autobiography of Malcolm X (first published
in 1964), which recounts the author’s journey
from a life of street crime to leadership in the
African-American Muslim community, is the
most important work of its kind to come from
the North American context.
See also arabic langUage and literatUre;
biography; malcolm X; persian langUage and
literatUre; tUrkish langUage and literatUre.
Further reading: Taha Husayn, An Egyptian Childhood,
trans. E. H. Paxton (London: Heineman, 1981); Fatima
Mernissi, Dreams of Trespass: Tales of Harem Girlhood
(Reading, Mass.: Addison Wesley, 1994); Dwight F.
Reynolds, ed., Interpreting the Self: Autobiography in the
Arabic Literary Tradition (Berkeley: University of Cali-
fornia Press, 2001).
Averroës See ibn rushd, abu walid muhammad
ibn ahmad.
Avicenna See ibn sina, abu ali al-husayn.
Awami League
The Awami (People’s) League is one of the two
most powerful political parties in bangladesh,
together with its rival, the Bangladesh National
Party (BNP). It is an important example of the
secular currents in modern Muslim politics. The
league was founded in 1949 by Husayn Shaheed
Suhrawardy (1892–1963) and other members
of the Bengali branch of the all-india mUslim
leagUe in what was then called East Bengal (after
1955 it was called East Pakistan), a province of
pakistan created as a result of the partition of
india in 1947. Earlier, Suhrawardy and his col-
leagues had been active in the Indian nationalist
movement against British colonial rule. Created
after partition, the East Pakistan Awami Mus-
lim League (later renamed the Awami League)
gave voice to Bengali Muslims opposed to West
Pakistan’s domination of the new country. Bengali
nationalists wanted greater self-rule in a loosely
knit federation, inclusion of Hindus and Sikhs
in the national polity, and recognition of Bangla,
their national language, as an official state lan-
guage. The West Pakistani leadership, however,
wanted to preserve its privileged position, retain
Pakistan’s distinct Muslim identity, and keep Urdu
as its only official language.
Suhrawardy was eclipsed in the 1960s by the
charismatic Sheikh Mujibur (Mujib) Rahman
(1920–75), who expanded the Awami League’s
appeal to the Bengali masses with his “Six Point
Program” for more equality in Pakistani affairs.
Advocating a secular parliamentary democracy,
the Awami League won a landslide victory in the
1970 national elections. Its triumph was short-
lived, however, because the Pakistani military
intervened in 1971 to declare martial law, and it
imprisoned Mujib for treason, which precipitated
a war for independence from Pakistan. With the
assistance of Indian troops, East Pakistan thus
became Bangladesh in 1971, and Mujib, released
from prison, became its first prime minister.
The new government’s constitution was based
on “four pillars” advocated by Mujib and the
Awami League: democracy, socialism, secular-
ism, and nationalism. The league’s popularity
soon declined, however, in the face of a famine
in 1974 and political and economic failures that
resulted in a series of coups after Mujib’s death
in 1975. It regained its parliamentary majority in
the 1996 elections, and Mujib’s daughter, Shaikh
Hasina Wajid, became Bangladesh’s prime min-
ister (1996–2001). The league remains strongly
secular in outlook. As one observer has noted,
the Awami League upholds the idea that “Bangla-K (^76) Averroës