Meer, Fatima (1928–)

Fatima Meer has for five decades been the foremost Indian South African woman anti-apartheid activist. She was active in the 1946 Indian Passive Resistance Campaign, the Congress Alliance and its Defiance [Page 935]Campaign, the Federation of South African Women, and the Black Consciousness Movement. She was banned and imprisoned by the apartheid government and turned down the chance to join the multiracial parliament as an African National Congress (ANC) candidate in the 1994 elections, choosing to work with the ANC and non-governmental organizations on continuing problems of poverty. She has written many influential books on race relations.

Meer was born in Durban, South Africa, the daughter of Moosa Meer, the editor of Indian Views. She was raised in a liberal Islamic atmosphere of tolerance and throughout her life tried to build bridges across religious, racial, class, ethnic, and gender lines. She completed her bachelor's and master's degrees in sociology at the University of Natal.

Meer's political activism began in 1946 with her involvement in the Passive Resistance Campaign against segregation launched by the South African Indian Congress (SAIC). She organized the Student Passive Resistance Committee to support the campaign. She was active as an organizer and speaker in the Defiance Campaign launched in 1952 by the ANC and SAIC and was banned in 1952 for a period of 3 years, which confined her to Durban and prohibited her attendance at public gatherings and the publication of her writings.

Despite her banning, she was a founding member of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) in 1954. She was again banned in 1975 for 5 years. In 1976, she was detained without trial for 6 months for breaking her banning order and working to organize a mass rally with Steve Biko. Shortly after her release, she and her husband, Ismail Meer, an ANC and South African Communist Party activist, survived an assassination attempt when their house was gasoline-bombed. She was charged twice more for breaking her banning orders.

Meer has done extensive work to expand educational opportunities for African students. She was a respected academic, a member of the faculty of the University of Natal from 1956 to 1988. She published more than 40 books, including Portrait of Indian South Africans, Documents of Indentured Labour, Higher Than Hope (the first authorized biography of Nelson Mandela), and Prison Diary: One Hundred and Thirteen Days.

Meer has served the ANC government in a number of appointed positions, and in May 1999 she helped found the Concerned Citizens' Group to persuade Indians not to vote for white parties. She was a founding member of Jubilee 2000, organized to pressure for cancellation of poor countries' debts. She was also active in marches during 2001 and 2002 to protest Israeli treatment of Palestinians and the war in Afghanistan.