Zaynab bint Ali

Zaynab was born around 626, the eldest daughter of Fatima and Ali ibn Abi Talib, placing her at the heart of early Islam's most prominent family. Her father became the fourth caliph and first Shia imam; her grandfather was the Prophet himself. In 680, at the Battle of Karbala, Umayyad caliph Yazid's forces massacred her brother Husayn and nearly all the men with him. Zaynab survived as a captive, taken first to Kufa and then to Damascus with the other women and children. There, in the capital of her family's enemies, she delivered impassioned public speeches that condemned Yazid and broadcast…