Fatima Zakaria

Fatima Zakaria
Children4, including Fareed Zakaria
AwardsPadma Shri

Fatima Zakaria (17 February 1936 – 6 April 2021) was the editor of the Mumbai Times, and became the Sunday editor of The Times of India. Zakaria was also the editor of the Taj magazine of the Taj Hotels. Her office was in the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai.

Family

Fatima Zakaria was the second widow of Rafiq Zakaria, who was an Indian politician and Islamic religious cleric.

She was the step-mother of 2 children. The eldest, Tasneem Zakaria Mehta, is an art historian and writer, living in Mumbai. The second is Mansoor Zakaria. Her full son Arshad Zakaria runs a hedge fund. Her youngest full son Fareed Zakaria is an editor of Newsweek, and host of Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN.

Career

In 1958, Fatima Zakaria started a childcare center and a Women's Industrial Home in Mumbai. These places gave education and healthcare to more than 500 poor children.

In 1963, Zakaria began working as a journalist. She wrote a column for children in The Illustrated Weekly of India and was an assistant editor under Khushwant Singh. In 1970, she joined The Times of India. She was promoted many times and became the editor of the Sunday edition. As editor, she interviewed famous people such as Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, J.R.D. Tata, and Jayaprakash Narayan. She also interviewed Morarji Desai and Charan Singh, who were both prime ministers of India.

Zakaria also led two education organizations in Aurangabad. She was the president of the Maulana Azad Education Society and the chairman of the Maulana Azad Educational Trust, which her husband Rafiq Zakaria had started. Under her leadership, the schools and colleges in Aurangabad grew into some of the best centres of learning in the region.

Zakaria also worked with the Taj Group of Hotels to set up a five-star hotel, The Taj Residency, on the campus of the Trust's Maulana Azad College of Arts and Science in Aurangabad. She became the editor of Taj, the group's magazine. Her office was in the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai. She also started a hotel management course together with a British university, and she was on the board of the Indian Institute of Hotel Management, Aurangabad.

Zakaria, is regarded as a secularist, however she took special care to cater to the educational needs of the Muslims.

The award Padma Shri was conferred on her by the Government of India in 2006.

Zakaria died from COVID-19 at the Kamalnayan Bajaj Hospital in Aurangabad on 6 April 2021.

References

  1. ↑ "Siblings - Achievers, not Inheritors". the-south-asian.com. February 2003.
  2. 1 2 "The new Taj". Arlington, VA: Tata Sons Ltd. 12 November 2001. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 14 February 2011.
  3. ↑ "Dr. Rafiq Zakaria remembered". Two Circles. 16 July 2010. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  4. ↑ "Arshad Zakaria appointed Merrill Lynch co-president". Rediff India Limited. 8 October 2001. Retrieved 14 February 2011.
  5. 1 2 "Noted educationist, journalist Padmashri Fatma Zakaria passes away". Lokmat Times. 6 April 2021. Retrieved 24 August 2026.
  6. ↑ Fernando, Benita (7 April 2021). "Former editor Fatma Zakaria dies at 85". The Indian Express. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  7. ↑ "Siblings - Achievers, not Inheritors". the-south-asian.com. February 2003.
  8. ↑ "Board". Indian Institute of Hotel Management, Aurangabad. Archived from the original on 24 October 2017. Retrieved 10 May 2012.
  9. ↑ "Padma Awards Directory (1954-2009)" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, India. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 May 2013.
  10. ↑ "Veteran Journalist, Fareed Zakaria's Mother, Padma Shri Fatima Zakaria Dies Aged 85". The Cognate. 6 April 2021. Archived from the original on 6 April 2021. Retrieved 13 December 2023.