called for an end to polygamy at the American University in Cairo and her speech was circulated in the Arabic speaking world through print- much to the dismay of two Sheiks from Al-Azhar University who protested. Saronjini Naidu (1879–1949), daughter of a Bengali college principal, was educated at a university in Madras and later in Cambridge. On her return to India, she broke societal norms of marrying within caste and state by marrying a South Indian doctor. In a few years, she established herself as a noteworthy poet and rhetor. In 1914, she met Gandhi in England and became his devout follower in the following years. She served as a prominent speaker for the Indian National Congress for years, and campaigned alongside Gandhi during significant moments of sub-continental history: Gandhi’s non-cooperation movement in 1920, the Salt March in 1930, the Round Table Conferences in London in 1931 and was one of the activists jailed during the ‘Quit India’ movement of 1942. In 1926, she had made history by being the first woman president of Congress. Soranjini Naidu’s sister-in-law, Kamaladevi Chattophadhyay, was an even more radical feminist, socialist and political reformer. Like other nationalists of the time, Kamaladevi had also been to jail for her participation in the activities of the Indian National Movement. She was influential not only as a nationalist but had met European feminists and drew her inspiration from women’s movements across the Western world and was a member of the Congress Socialist Party- stating at a conference in Meerut: “Rather than running away from the Congress, calling it bourgeoisie’, socialists should...prevent the leadership from converting it into a bourgeoisie party”. Inspired by torchbearers like Saronjini and Kamaladevi, ordinary women were also active participants in the struggle for liberation in the uprising against the British in India; an astonishing 17,000 of the 80,000 arrests made during the salt satyagraha were women. In Indonesia, Suwarni Pringgodigdo founded the Isteri Sedar (‘The Alert Woman’) movement in 1930. By 1932, this had become a large political movement that urged for improvements of the conditions of working-class women, remodelling of a uniform education system for the country, women’s education and participation in politics, and a strict stance on issues such as polygamy and prostitution. Amongst the notable allies of Isteri Sedar was Sukarno, who was a dedicated supporter of women’s rights. In January 1931, Isteri Sedar participated in a convention of Asian