Martyr Bint al-Huda Sadr (1938 - 1980), Seyyed Heidar Sadr’s daugh-ter and martyr Ayatollah Seyyed Muhammad Baqir Sadr’s sister, was born in the holy city of Kazimayn.Her mother, the daughter of Sheikh Abdul-Hussein Ale Yasin, named her Amina. Amina (nicknamed Bint al-Huda) lost her father when she was a six-month-old infant. She was raised by her mother according to the principles of Islam and after going through elementary education, she went to the holy city of Najaf togeth-er with her brothers, Seyyed Ismail and Seyyed Muhammad Baqir Sadr, and completed her religious educa-tion at the Najaf theological center, in the field of Fiqh, Hadith, literature, ethics, and Tafsir, and obtained the degree of Ijtihad. Then, guided by her brother, she started political and social works and activities, launching a fresh movement for guiding Iraqi women and became the flag-bearer of the women’s Islamic Movement in Iraq. Her first essays appeared in the al-Adhwa magazine, published by a group of the Ulama of Najaf. She also shared the works and re-sponsibilities regarding a number of schools in Kazimayn and Bagdad and played a significant role in educating the Muslim girls. She promoted the Iraqi women’s awareness, propagat-ed Islamic Hijab, and brought about a considerable transformation in the attitude of the society towards Islam and women.

Bint al-Huda spent several hours each day writing and also engaged in ceaseless efforts, alongside her righteous brother - Ayatollah Seyyed Muhammad Baqir Sadr, in propaga-tion against the dictatorial regime of Iraq and made many sacrifices for this purpose. In the month of Rajab of the year 1399 AH (1978 CE), the agents of the Iraqi regime arrested her brother Muhammad Baqir Sadr, before her eyes. She tried to accompany her brother, but the agents didn’t let her do so. It has been narrated that she addressed the driver (of the car which took her brother away) and said: “One day you will wake up and regret this act of yours.” And Bint al-Huda delivered an amazing speech just at that site, declaring to her brother: “I will not leave you alone. I want to accompany you just as Hazrat Zeinab (sa), accompanied her brother Imam Hussein (as).” And as the car moved away, Bint al-Huda caused the heart of the enemies to tremble by her thunder-like shouts of Takbir (Allah-o Akbar; God is the Greatest) and then went to the Holy Shrine of Imam Ali (as) where she delivered a historic speech, making the people cry and exciting them for movement. 

Her ceaseless efforts forced the regime to release her brother from prison, but before long, i.e., on the 20th of the month of Jamadi ul-Aval of 1400 (April 6, 1980) both she and her brother were arrested by the agents of the blood-thirsty regime of Iraq, imprisoned and severely tor-tured. She was martyred after three days.
What follows are remarks by Huj-jat al-Islam Nu’mani about Bint al-Huda’s Jihad:
“Martyr Bint al-Huda’s Jihad (struggle in the way of God) started markedly from the moment her brother was arrested in 1392 AH (1971 CE) when the criminal forces (of the Ba’athist regime) attacked their home and so she had to protect her brother’s small children against them. Later, her brother, Muham-mad Baqir Sadr was again arrested in 1397 AH (1977 AD) in the course of the uprising in the month of Sa-far. These were very hard times in the history of Najaf, and there were much stress and horror due to the many attacks and arrests by the Ba’athist agents. Yet under such hard conditions, Bint al-Huda continued to exhibit her matchless bravery and to struggle for the release of her brother.

In the month of Rajab of 1399 (1979 AD), the Ba’athist forces be-sieged their house to pave the ground for the arrest of Seyyed Muhammad Baqir Sadr once again. She said: “To-morrow morning they will arrest Seyyed (her brother).” and added: “By Allah, I feel no fear. Rather I have been expecting such a moment.” She then went to her own room to burn some pictures and letters which she knew shouldn’t fall into the hands of the enemy. When the Ba’athist forc-es, whose number was over 300, at-tacked their house, Bint al-Huda, like the heroine of Karbala, Hazrat Zeinab (sa), most courageously addressed those armed-to-the-teeth mercenar-ies, saying: “Allah-o Akbar…Allah-o Akbar! Look! My brother is unarmed. He is carrying no guns, no machine-guns, unlike you who have many kinds of weapons… By Allah, you are afraid, because you know my brother is not alone and the whole Iraqi peo-ple are with him. You know this; oth-erwise, you would not come to arrest him with so many weapons and forc-es, and, that too, early in the morn-ing. How can you claim that the Iraqi people are with you and are mem-bers of your party? Whom are you deceiving? Yourselves or the people? As for us, by Allah, we fear no one, we have no fear of you, nor of your jails,we welcome death in Allah’s way….”

And when her speech ended, she addressed her brother thus: “Broth-er! Allah is with you. This way is the way of our righteous forefathers!” It should be mentioned that her faith and Zeinab-like bravery had obvi-ously trembled the hearts of those criminal mercenaries so much as to make them silent and motionless for minutes during which Bint al-Huda spoke up so heroically against them. It has been said that one of them had attempted to shoot her while speak-ing, but he had been forcefully pre-vented from doing so by some people around. I wish everybody could wit-ness that unforgettable scene.”