Fatima Meer: promoting justice through non-violence

Abstract

South African anti-apartheid and human rights activist, educator, and author Fatima Meer was the second of nine children of Moosa Meer, an immigrant from Surat, Gujarat in India, and Rachel Farrel, a Jewish orphan of Portuguese descent who took the name Amina when she converted to Islam. Moosa Meer was highly respected because he had read widely and had an immense knowledge of Islam, Hinduism and Christianity. His children inherited his love for language, scholarship, tolerance of other religions, and opposition to any form of discrimination. He initially worked in his uncle's shop as a shop assistant before becoming the editor as well as publisher of Indian Views, which he published weekly for the southern African Gujarati-speaking Muslim community. The newspaper focused on the struggle against white minority rule and colonialism, in particular the struggle against British imperialism in India. The extended Meer family was large, and many of the male members of the family were leading activists in the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) as well as the South African Indian Congress (SAIC) and in anti-apartheid campaigns.