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Fatima Meer
Fatima Meer (1928-2010) is best known as a fearless campaigner against injustice who brought her political activism to her work as a sociologist and writer. She was a courageous, s...view moreFatima Meer (1928-2010) is best known as a fearless campaigner against injustice who brought her political activism to her work as a sociologist and writer. She was a courageous, selfless and an independent-minded scholar-activist, who was never afraid to speak out. She became involved in campaigns against apartheid in 1946. In the 1950s she founded the Durban and District Women’s League and was a founder member of the Federation of South African Women. She campaigned in the1960s against group areas removals, and against detention without trial. Meer taught in the Sociology Department of what was then the University of Natal in Durban for over 30 years. She authored over twenty books, and edited almost twenty others, including biographies of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. In 1954 Meer was one of the first South Africans, and the first woman, to be placed under a banning order. She was banned again from 1976 to 1985. In 1976 she was detained without trial for six months. Soon after her release from prison she survived an assassination attempt. In the following years there were two arson attacks on her Durban home. She continued to campaign against injustice even within the post-1994 democratic South Africa. Meer was married to fellow political campaigner Ismail Meer and had three children – Shamim, Shehnaz and Rashid. She is survived by two daughters Shamim and Shehnaz and five grandchildren.view less