In Memoriam: Najma Sadeque

In how many ways can I describe my wonderful indomitable mother – she wore so many hats – an activist to the last, journalist for over 40 years, a founder member of a sisterhood (Shirkat Gah & WAF), and someone who had so many interests and never short on wonderful ideas and new perspectives. To each of them she brought the passion and sharp intellect that marked her career, and her life.

Najma Sadeque was born and educated in Dhaka and came from an intellectual family, both her parents were intellectuals themselves. Her father was an economist and mother a professor in Dhaka University and had translated the Quran in English.

My mother had moved to Karachi after marriage and then stayed on as the two wings of the country were torn apart. Her links with her native land remained strong. Her early years were spent on a farm and shaped her interest in agriculture – one of the diverse topics she wrote both articles and books on. She also wrote on finance, terrorism and gender, among other issues too. Some of her publications include The Great Agricultural Hoax, Ground Realities, How the Run the World (which was translated & published into 18 languages), How they Kill the World, Financial Terrorism, many of these were translated into Urdu and Sindhi as well.

Beginning her career as a journalist, and had a long association with The Dawn Group, The News, Newsline, Pakistan Times, Financial Post The Nation. She was a very ardent activist as well and was a founding member of Shirkat Gah in 1975. The NGO Shirkatgah, set up in the mid-1970s to advocate for the rights of women. She also played a key role in the setting up of the Women’s Action Forum in 1981, and was particularly active within it as it put up a resistance to anti-women policies and laws adopted during the Zia years.

The subject of agriculture, farmers’ rights, land reforms and food security was very close to her heart and the last two years she was probably the only one raising her voice against the introduction of GM seeds into the country. She feared that the destruction that it would cause to the agriculture and farmers in the long term, as it had done in other countries including India. She was a very strong advocate of small scale farming and felt that it was the way to feed the world and recently the U.N. Commission on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) admitted it in their new publication called Trade and Environment Review 2013: Wake Up Before it is Too Late.

A soft spoken person, but an immensely determined one, Najma remained true to her convictions. Although she passed away at the age of 72 many of her friends, colleges, fans, and admirers felt she left too soon. Throughout a life, Najma Sadeque continued to battle against oppression and injustice of every kind.

Her last project and the Director of the Green Economics Institutive was a UNWomen project called Women Empowerment Project through home-based food production in which I had worked as a volunteer had trained 300 marginalized poor home-based women workers in many subjects including growing their own food. The project finished on Dec 31^st and she passed away on Jan 8^th. I have just finished writing the project end report and I realized the important on her vision to make women self-sufficient when I worked in the field in poverty stricken areas – I also understood the term feminization of poverty in real terms.

I worked very closely and traveled with her for the last 8 years. It was she who felt I should peruse my interest as a documentary film-maker and make powerful films. As a result I made many films and presentations for her based on her ideas and we used them for lectures and to conduct workshops as well. Such as An Acre for Every Women, Killing Another Piece of our World, A Woman’s Harvest, “Surviving Money and the Financial System” but one film was very important to her “A People’s Untold History” that I had made based on her concept. It has many issues and topics that she felt very strongly about and all economic and social policies that she felt – if they had been applied, this would have been a different country. There are 11 speakers in this film and they are the specialists in their fields. It is 1 ½ hour long but I’ll share the first half hour to give you an idea of Najma Sadeque’s —- how far she could see.

In the early hours of January 8, 2015, Najma Sadeque’s spirit passed away and the country lost an icon of the activist world.

She left behind countless friends, admirers, fellow activists and fans. Along the way, her integrity won her many friends and staunch colleagues from every sphere. She was an unassuming intellectual, an indomitable writer, a mentor to many, a loving mother and friend.

I share another picture of her with you when she was still working on her women’s empowerment through food security project at Shirkat Gah. I had snapped this picture in our garden just before we were leaving for the office and fieldwork with all our office paraphernalia.