It was established by a group of secular well educated Muslim women from the Baghdad bourgeoise political elite, mostly wives and relatives of male politicians and other prominent men: its president was Asma al-Zahawi, sister of the poet Jamil Sidqi al-Zahawi, and its vice president was Naima al-Said, married to Prime Minister Nuri al-Said.
[citation needed] The first Iraqi woman journalist, Paulina Hassoun, was a founding member.
[2] The club was also involved in charity, and produced clothes for the poor and education for orphan girls.
The activities of the club were extremely controversial to the conservatives, who agitated against it and claimed that its aim was to damage the honor of the family by unveiling (that is, to give women the right to decide if they wanted to wear a hijab or not).
[2] In reality, however, the Club avoided the controversial issue of the veil and focused on education and women's access to work instead.