1. Fatima Meer was a South African writer, academic, screenwriter, and prominent anti-apartheid activist.
35 Facts About Fatima Meer
1. 2.
Fatima Meer's mother was Rachel Farrell, the second wife of Moosa Ismail Meer.
3.
Fatima Meer's mother was orphaned and of Jewish and Portuguese descent.
4.
Fatima Meer converted to Islam and changed her name to Amina.
5.
Fatima Meer completed her schooling at the Durban Indian Girls High School.
6.
Fatima Meer went to the University of Natal, where she completed a Bachelor's degree and Master's degree in Sociology.
7.
Fatima Meer helped to establish the Durban and District Women's League on 4 October 1952 as a group of 70 women.
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Bertha Mkhize 8.
Bertha Mkhize became the chairperson and Fatima Meer became the secretary of the league.
9.
Fatima Meer was one of the founding members of the Federation of South African Women, established on 17 April 1954 in the Trades Hall on Rissik Street, in central Johannesburg, which spearheaded the historical women's march at the Union Buildings, Pretoria, on 9 August 1956.
10.
Fatima Meer was one of the leaders of the Women's March in 1956.
11.
Fatima Meer was one of the organisers of a week-long vigil at the Gandhi Settlement in Phoenix.
12.
In 1975, Fatima Meer co-founded the Black Women's Federation with Winnie Mandela.
13.
Fatima Meer narrowly survived an assassination attempt shortly after her release from detention in 1976 when she was shot at her family home in Durban, but not harmed.
14.
Fatima Meer was attacked again and blamed the second attack on the Black Consciousness Movement and Inkatha Freedom Party.
15.
Fatima Meer declined the offer of a seat in parliament in 1994, because of her preference for non-governmental work.
16.
In May 1999, Fatima Meer founded the Concerned Citizens' Group to persuade Indian people not to vote for white parties in the next election.
17.
Fatima Meer was a strong supporter of the Iranian Revolution and boycotted Salman Rushdie's trip to South Africa in 1998, claiming that he was a blasphemer.
18.
Fatima Meer was involved in protests against the oppression and assault of the Palestinian people and the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
19.
Fatima Meer founded Jubilee 2000 to campaign for the cancellation of Third World debt.
20.
Fatima Meer published her book entitled Portrait of Indian South Africans in 1969 and donated all revenue from the sale of the book to the Gandhi Settlement for the needs to build Gandhi Museum and Clinic.
21.
Fatima Meer helped an operation to rescue 10 000 Indian flood victims at Tin Town which was located on the banks of the Umgeni River.
22.
Fatima Meer built temporary housing in a tent and organized relief food and clothing.
23.
Fatima Meer founded and became a leader of Natal Education Trust which gather money from the Indian community to build schools in Umlazi, Port Shepstone and Inanda.
24.
Fatima Meer founded Tembalishe Tutorial College at Gandhi's Phoenix home to taught blacks in secretarial skills in 1979.
25.
In 1992, Fatima Meer founded the Clare Estate Environment Group as a response to the needs of shack dwellers and rural migrants.
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Bertha Mkhize 26.
Fatima Meer was founded Khanya Women's Skills Training Centre in 1996, which teach 150 Black women in pattern-cutting, sewing, adult literacy and business management.
27.
Fatima Meer married her first cousin in 1950, Ismail Meer.
28.
Fatima Meer was an active member of the KwaZulu-Natal ANC provincial legislature.
29.
Fatima Meer is survived by two daughters Shehnaz, a Land Claims Court judge, and Shamim, a social science consultant.
30.
Fatima Meer became a lecturer of sociology and a staff member of the University of Natal from 1956 to 1988.
31.
Fatima Meer was the first non-white person to hold that position.
32.
Fatima Meer was a visiting professor at a number of universities in abroad.
33.
Fatima Meer became a fellow of the London School of Economics, and received three honorary doctorates.
34.
Fatima Meer founded the Institute for Black Research, which became a research and publishing institution and educational NGO in 1972.
35.
Fatima Meer died at St Augustine's Hospital in Durban on 12 March 2010, aged 81, from a stroke which she suffered two weeks earlier.