Shamima Shaikh (14 September 1960 – 8 January 1998) was South Africa's best known Muslim women's rights activist, notable Islamic feminist and journalist.
She was born in Louis Trichardt (today South Africa's Limpopo Province) just north of the Tropic of Capricorn.
After completing school in 1978, Shaikh studied at the University of Durban-Westville, which was reserved, under South Africa's apartheid laws, for students of Indian descent.
In 1985 Shaikh was elected to the executive committee of the Islamic Society of UD-W. On 4 September 1985, she was arrested for distributing pamphlets that called for a consumer boycott of white-owned businesses in Durban.
The boycott had been called by the Federation of South African Trade Unions (Fosatu), the largest trade union federation in the country and supported by the Muslim Students Association of South Africa (MSA), which had organised this particular pamphlet blitz.
After completing her degree in 1985, Shaikh taught at the Taxila Primary and Secondary school in her hometown of Pietersburg (now called Polokwane).
In 1993, Shaikh was elected the Transvaal Regional Chairperson of the Muslim Youth Movement, and was thus a member of its National Executive, only the second woman to hold such a position.
Shaikh was very involved in the Muslim Forum on Elections – a coalition of Muslim organisations that was calling on the community to vote in South Africa's first democratic elections in April 1994, and to vote for those parties "that had formerly been part of the liberation movement" – in particular, the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC).
[1] In August 1997, the Muslim community radio station, The Voice, was launched - with Shaikh at its head.
One of the four funeral prayers performed for her was led by her close female friend, Farhana Ismail, with women and men following - as per Shaikh's request.