Mrs Dosebai Cowasjee Jessawalla was born in Bombay in 1832. She studied at Mrs Ward’s Seminary and was one of the first Indian-Parsi women to receive higher education. She married Cowasjee Jehangir Jessawalla in 1852 with whom she had two sons and a daughter. An ambassador of the Parsis, Dosebai proudly stood out in every gathering for her elaborate Parsi gara saris that she designed and embroidered herself. She was an avid traveller and a staunch advocate of women’s rights. Dosebai died in 1911 at the age of seventy-eight, a few months before the publication of her autobiography, The Story of My Life.
