A teacher and feminist, the first woman on the Central Committee of the MUD, whom José Gomes Ferreira called “the Indomitable” (a Indomável). The regime closed her school, barred her from teaching and arrested her several times.
Oppositionteacherfounder and head of the Colégio Fernão de Magalhãesmember of the CNMP and of the Portuguese Women’s Association for Peacefirst woman on the Central Committee of the MUDpolitical prisoner
Born
7 January 1902, Lisbon (Rua Nova do Loureiro, Bairro Alto, former parish of Mercês)
She was born in Lisbon on 7 January 1902. She graduated in Historical and Philosophical Sciences from the Lisbon Faculty of Letters, where she was a teaching assistant, and in 1938 she founded the Colégio Fernão de Magalhães, where she taught and was head.42 A widow from 1942, with five children, she then began to be persecuted: the Minister of Education vetoed her name at the Faculty and, in 1945, she was dismissed for political reasons.8
In the 1930s she became a member of the National Council of Portuguese Women and later also joined the Portuguese Women’s Association for Peace.8 In 1945 she was the first woman on the Central Committee of the Movement of Democratic Unity (MUD).3 She was arrested on 13 December 1946, with other members of the Central Committee, and released the next day; she was arrested again in January 1948, for distributing 1,500 copies of MUD propaganda, and was held for two months.2
She supported the candidacies of Norton de Matos, Arlindo Vicente and Humberto Delgado; in a 1949 photograph she stands beside Norton de Matos at a rally at A Voz do Operário.5 The school was closed down in February 1949. Forbidden to leave the country to go and teach in Brazil, she opened a dressmaking workshop and gave private lessons. Called as a defence witness to the Plenary Court, she stood up to the judge and was sent for three days to the Mónicas Prison, which she left saying that she had carried out “a sociological study” there. In 1961 she was stripped of her political rights.2
Maria Lamas wrote to her that her example would stand “as a source of pride for all of us women!”. The poet José Gomes Ferreira called her “the Indomitable”; others, “the Woman without Fear”. She died on 7 March 1963.24
O ano do episódio do Tribunal Plenário e das Mónicas (1958, segundo a Wikipédia; o Museu do Aljube não o data).
Se foi dirigente do Conselho Nacional das Mulheres Portuguesas e da Associação Feminina Portuguesa para a Paz: o Museu do Aljube chama-lhe «dirigente» das duas (e do MUD, entre 1946 e 1948); a CIG e a Wikipédia dizem que entrou como sócia no Conselho, nos anos 1930, e que mais tarde aderiu à Associação.
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Sources8
1Margarida Tengarrinha, «Maria Isabel Aboim Inglez — "A Indomável"». Faces de Eva. Estudos sobre a Mulher, n.º 43 (NOVA FCSH), 2020 — consulted on 4 October 2026«Até à sua morte, em 1963, Maria Isabel manteve sempre uma consciente actividade política»; presa várias vezes em Caxias e uma vez nas Mónicas; colégio encerrado a 11 de fevereiro de 1949.
2Isabel Aboim Inglez. Museu do Aljube Resistência e Liberdade (EGEAC) — consulted on 2 October 2026
3Ilegalização do MUD. Museu do Aljube Resistência e Liberdade (EGEAC) — consulted on 2 October 2026
