Rattanbai Petit (20 February 1900-20 February 1929), later known as Maryam Jinnah, was the wife of Pakistani founding father Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Biography[]
Rattanbai Petit was born in Bombay, British India on 20 February 1900, the daughter of the Parsi businessman Dinshaw Petit and Sylla Tata. She came from an extremely affluent and well-connected family, and she grew up proficient in French. In 1916, her father's friend Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who felt love for Rattanbai, lured her father into talking about accepting interfaith marriages, and he asked if it was possible for a Muslim man to marry a Zoroastrian girl. Dinashaw Petit was infuriated and almost ordered Jinnah out of his house, and Jinnah and Rattanbai would elope in 1918. She converted to Islam and changed her name to "Maryam Jinnah", but she continued to be known as "Ruttie" by her family. She felt isolated as her husband became increasingly involved with political activism during the 1920s, and she left her husband with their daughter Dina Wadia in September 1922 before separating in 1927. She died of cancer in 1929 on her 29th birthday.