Esther Rahim

Esther Rahim (25 June 1904 - 31 March 1963), also known as Esmet Rahim, was a significant Pakistani painter.

Born Esther Joesten in Munich, German Empire (now Germany), she was the first child of Joseph Joesten and his wife, Amalia. At the age of eighteen, she started studying art in Düsseldorf (Germany) and took courses in sculpture under Bourdelle in Paris (France). In 1929, she obtained a Ph.D. from Munich University in psychology.

In 1929, she married Jalaludin Abdur Rahim (a.k.a. J A Rahim, one of the founding members of the Pakistan Peoples Party), who was continuing his chemistry studies after having obtained a degree at Cambridge University. Together with her husband, who joined the Indian Civil Service, she went to Madras (India) in 1931. Her first child (Razia) was born in 1932. With her husband, she moved to Calcutta (India) in 1936 and to Delhi (India) after the birth of her son, (Sikander) in 1939. The couple were divorced in 1945. Nevertheless, she followed her former husband to Egypt, (Cairo and Alexandria).

In 1952, she left Egypt to settle in Europe, where she remarried her former husband and settled in Brussels (Belgium) before her husband was transferred to Karachi (Pakistan). In 1955, Esther Rahim moved to Bonn (Germany) where her husband became the Pakistan Ambassador to Germany. In 1962, following her husband, who became Ambassador to France, she moved to Paris, where she died in 1963. Razia died in 1951. Sikander, a retired economist from the World Bank, lives in Munich and is married to Rose-Marie Brierre.

Esther Rahim was a founding member of the Karachi Arts Council.