Shafiqa was born in Bakhcasaray (Crimea) on the 1886, 14th of October. She was half Crimean Tatar on the paternal side and half Kazan Tatar on the maternal side. Shafiqa’s father was famous writer and politician Ismayil Gaspiriali. Ismayil was in contact with Russia's Turkic and Islamic intellectuals, and Azerbaijan was no exception. His newspaper Terjuman had many subscribed readers in Azerbaijan. Bakuvian oil magnate and philanthropist Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev helped Ismayil financially. Azerbaijani youth who would study in Ukraine visited Ismayil a lot. A bond was created. A certain law student from Ganjä named Nasib Bey Yusifbeyli was one of these students. As many of you might know Yusifbeyli later on was one of the key founding fathers of Azerbaijan. Ismayil Gaspirali’s effect on Nasib was immense. Shafiqa writes in her memoirs: “In December 1902, members of the Odesa University Turkic Students' Association came to Crimea to meet, get to know each other and understand each other as a group. Banquets and gatherings were held in their honour in Bagchasaray and Aghmasjid. Crimean youth welcomed them in the proper form. Nasib's second visit to Crimea was on May 4, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Tercuman, as a representative of the association.” Please, remember Nasib Bey Yusifbeyli as we will come to him again. 

Shafiqa's maternal side was also a historically significant clan. Akchurins were Kazan Tatars. Yusuf Akchurin became one of Ataturk's closest allies in establishing a strong tradition of study of social sciences. Yusuf's aunt was Zuhre Akchurin-Gaspirali. Zuhre and Ismayils' marriage was more than nikah, but also a strong political coalition aiming to spread literacy, education and a democratic mindset to Muslims. Zuhre mainly helped Ismayil with typography and editing for the Terjuman newspaper. 

Shafiqa after her mother's sudden death in 1903, took her place in helping her father. After a while under Ismayil's supervision, the Alem-i Nisvan journal was established, and its editor-in-chief was Shafiqa. Alem means world or universe in various Turkic languages, its origin is Arabic. While Nisvan means women in archaic Turkic. Thus, the journal's name meant "Women's World". Her work in this field was revolutionary. The journal had topics like women's education and upbringing; roles of women in society, how to educate children; girls' schools; biographies of successful women; issues and problems of women worldwide; health; beauty; handicrafts and poetry. However, what caught my attention was how Shafiqa engaged in the intersectionality discussions without acknowledging it. Intersectionality as a term was coined only in the 21st century by Kimberlé Crenshaw. It is about overlapping identities and how they can create overlapping forms of discrimination. For example, in Canada today main focus of intersectionality is Indigenous women, while for Shafiqa it is Muslim women living in Russia. She pioneered in understanding how the system was discriminatory towards Muslim men but even more to Muslim women. Shafiqa with her work inspired her contemporaries. Alem-i Nisvan inspired Işıq (Azerbaijan), Süyümbike (Kazan), Nenkecan (Crimean Tatars) and many other female socio-political journals and newspapers. 

There were not many constant writers of the Alem-i Nisvan. But we know that one of them was insanely in love with Shafiqa. Nasib Bey Yusifbeyli was from one of Ganja's many noble families. From the letters between Shafiqa and Nasib, we can see that later was initially studying to be a doctor. however, he later pursued a law career explaining it as a a more efficient way to help his people. One thing that should be understood about this power couple is that they always thought about ways to better their nations.

Fast forward to 1905, from letters, we can understand that Ismayil approved of her daughter marrying Nasib. Marriage was planned to be in 1905 however, most of you reading this can guess that marriage got delayed because of the 1905 Armenian-Tatar massacres. 1905 is considered the first ever intercommunal violence between Azerbaijanis and Armenians in modern days. In cities like Shusha, Erivan, Ganja and Baku savagery was common between the two communities in that infamous year as the first Russian revolution started. Azerbaijani intelligentsia showed truly how noble they are. Azerbaijani women like Khadija Aghayeva set up philanthropic organizations to help the Muslim poor, women, and children suffering during the clashes. "Difai" (meaning defence in archaic Azerbaijani) was set up by Ahmed Aghaogly, an indigenous Karabakhi Azeri who pursued nothing but to defend Muslims from Armenian savagery. Nasib and Shafiqa because of these incidents had to delay their marriage for a year. Nasib was active in "Difai", meanwhile Shafiqa after their marriage spent some time in Ganja of Azerbaijan. In Terjuman's 1908, February 19th issue we can see how Shafiqa addresses issues concerning women's education in Azerbaijani Ganja under Imperialist Russian rule. Shafiqa is saying: "I have been a guest here [Ganja - I.I.] for several months. Since I am a woman myself, naturally I think about the situation of women and girls. When I came to Ganja, I gathered information about the condition of the girls and found out that it is just like other places here [Muslim areas of Transcaucasus - I.I.]. In other words, no school for girls has been opened by Muslims [Azerbaijanis - I.I.] in Ganja so far. Another thing I saw in Ganja was that two schools by the Department of Education and one school by the department's sister organization were opened for girls. These organizations are made up of Russians and are controlled by the Cossack generals. There are 30 girls in schools opened by the Department of Education. The main reason why so few girls study in these schools is that the teachers are of foreign nationalities. I really can't trust these schools."

So, before we talk about her political activism let me give the context of the Russian revolution for the Turkic people and the national question. For most Turkic peoples(and also for non-Turkic ethnicities), the nation-building process began long ago under Tsarist Russia, and the Russian Revolution was a logical ending for them to create their states separate from Russia. If one looks at the 1917 all-Russian Constituent Election, nationalist parties like "Musavat" of Azerbaijan and "Alash Orda" of Kazakhstan gain a lot of votes in their respective districts. For them these elections did not mean "choosing leadership for Russia" but rather it meant a "referendum to leave Russia". The aforementioned political parties are hard to describe. They are truly products of their time. For nationalist elites, the Russian Revolution did not just mean economic or political but also most importantly a national revolution. Examples were Ukraine, Crimea (Tatarstan), Volga Tatars, Kuban Cossacks, Armenians, Georgians, Azerbaijanis, Baltic states, and Finland. So, what was Shafiqa doing at this time? Shafiqa because of her work in Alem-i Nisvan and Tercuman journals had close ties with nationalist circles of Crimea. Before the constituent elections were happening in Russia, Muslims aligned in an 11-day political meeting called "The First Muslim Congress of Russia" in 1917. There were two opinions. The first opinion was raised by Ahmed Tsalikov (leader of the Ossetian Muslims) - a cultural autonomy within Russia. A second opinion was raised by the M.E.Rasulzadeh (Azerbaijan's founding father) - a territorial independence. 446 of the delegates in the congress voted for Rasulzadeh's opinion and only 271 voted for Tsalikov's view of cultural autonomy with Russia. One could clearly infer that the Azerbaijani leader motivated the Muslim leaders of Russia to pursue independence.