Her literary career began in late 1950s when she started to write short stories and publish them in the leading newspaper of the country including the Azad.

[1] Iffat Ara was born to Maulavi Quazi Abdul Hakim and Mosammat Hajera Khatun in Kishoreganj in 1939.

[1] Desperate to continue education, she threatened to commit suicide and was subsequently admitted to the Vidyamoyee Govt.

But before she could complete the high school she was married to Abdul Latif Talukder, a young lawyer and politician.

When Ananda Mohan College was upgraded to a university-college, she earned her master's in Bengali language and literature in 1973.

After birth of Bangladesh in 1971, she, in association with others like author Helena Khan, Sufia Karim and politician Begum Mariam Hashimuddin took initiative to set up Mahila Samity (tr.

Later she took up the job of feature editor for the women's page of the weekly Banglar Darpan published from Mymensingh.

When the same establishment started to publish a monthly women's magazine, titled Chandrakash, in 1973, Iffat Ara was appointed its editor.