Noted educationist Zakaria passes away

Aurangabad: Fatma Rafiq Zakaria, a renowned name in the field of education, social work, journalism and publishing, passed away after a brief illness in Aurangabad on Tuesday. She was 85.

Conferred with Padma Shri in 2006, Zakaria was serving as the chairman of Maulana Azad Educational Trust, an educational group founded by her late husband and former Maharashtra minister Rafiq Zakaria. She is survived by two sons — Arshad Zakaria and noted Indian-American journalist Fareed Zakaria and other family members.

The last rites will be performed at Maulana Azad campus at 10 am on Wednesday in accordance with the government norms.

Formally educated from Isabella Thoburn College, Lucknow and later from Institute of Social Work at Nirmala Niketan in Mumbai, Zakaria founded an institution for childcare and a women’s home in Mumbai in 1958. She had noticeable stints with different newspapers and weeklies, including The Times of India in the capacity of senior assistant editor and acting resident editor.

She was also the member of the high-power committee formed by the Government of India for restructuring mass media. Zakaria also served as the senate member of the Bombay University as the Chancellor’s nominee from January 2000 for a period of five years.

In his condolence message, former Maharashtra education minister Rajendra Darda described Zakaria as the doyen of education and journalism fields. “Zakaria had made Aurangabad her home and contributed a lot in development of the city and the region,” he said.

Aurangabad MP Imtiaz Jaleel said, “Her work in the field of education is commendable. Thousands of students have studied in the numerous institutes run in Aurangabad under the banner of Maulana Azad Education Trust. After the death of her husband, she took on the mantle and carried forward the great work of imparting education specially to the poorest of minority students,” he said.