Writing an obituary for a parent or grandparent, especially when the person was a gigantic, well-known, and much-loved personality, is not easy. But we will try. Hilda Saeed, née Hilda Josiah, was born in Karachi in 1936. She was the eldest of five. She is survived by two sisters and a brother; myself (her daughter), her granddaughter, husband and several nieces, nephews and friends’ children who were deeply close to her. We all mourn her loss.

Hilda attended DJ College and began her career as a microbiologist and college professor. Born and raised a Christian, she married Mazhar Saeed, a Muslim, in 1962, against the wishes of her own and Mazhar’s families. She faced severe pressure from her in-laws and society to convert to Islam but remained steadfast in her commitment to her faith. This experience contributed to her decision to campaign for women’s and minority rights, inter-faith dialogue and harmony. She began her lifelong commitment to activism by opposing separate electorates that would deny minorities the same voting rights as Muslims. She wrote extensively about minority rights at a time of increasing intolerance and physical violence.

In the late seventies, Hilda joined the Sindh government to establish a Forensic Sciences Department. As part of this work, she encountered several rape crimes, including those against children. The volume of violent crimes against women and the state’s apathetic response in the backdrop of General Zia’s Hudood Ordinances (whereby a woman had to have four male eyewitnesses willing to testify she had been raped, failing which she was accused of adultery, a charge punishable by death), moved Hilda deeply and instigated within her a desire to affect change. A friend who worked at DawnMedia’s evening newspaper, The Star, encouraged her to turn these cases into stories that were published regularly.

In 1978, she joined the Shirkat Gah Women’s Resource Centre, a women’s collective and non-profit organisation working on women’s rights. In 1981, along with Shirkat Gah and other human rights activists, Hilda established the Women’s Action Forum, which advocates for women’s rights in Pakistan to this day. She helped take several cases related to unjust accusations against women and members of minority communities to court, and made outstanding contributions in raising awareness about women’s reproductive and sexual health rights through her work as a media practitioner, and by participating in conversations with both community members and government officials. From these efforts emerged the Pakistan Reproductive Health Network, of which she was a founding member, which raised issues related to sexual rights. She also helped establish Panah, a shelter and rehabilitation centre for domestic violence survivors. In this regard, she went on to compile Survivors – Stories from Panah, The True Stories of Women Who Escaped a Life of Domestic Abuse, and a Shelter that Made It Possible published by Oxfam in 2021.

Throughout the eighties, Hilda continued to write about public health in Dawn and other communication channels. In 1983, she established Pakistan’s first public health magazine, National Health, which ran successfully until it closed in the late nineties. She would often say with amusement that people accused her of making National Health a women’s rights magazine because of her focus on reproductive health rights. Hilda is credited with bringing the concept of reproductive health rights to the country’s agenda. She participated in many UN conferences and international forums, including but not limited to, the UN Women’s Conferences and the UN Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994 as a member of Pakistan’s NGO delegation. Throughout her life, she worked with multiple international organisations, served on boards, and published internationally.

Hila had a sweet, gentle, and fun-loving nature. She loved animals, reading, travelling and spending time with friends and family. She was humble and she never talked about her achievements, letting her work speak for itself. She instilled a love for reading in me and then my daughter, and in many of her friends’ children. Hilda was intrinsically kind, and would without hesitation did whatever she could to help others. She referred countless people in need of medical or legal assistance to doctors and lawyers, and she mentored many young people who came to her for educational and career guidance.

Hilda maintained a lovely home, bringing back decoration pieces and souvenirs from her many travels, often struggling to hand carry heavy and delicate pieces in her usual determined way. She was known for her grace and the elegance with which she carried the saris she loved to wear. Every Christmas, she invited the children of friends and neighbours to decorate her Christmas tree, and always made sure there was a present for each child under the tree. It was not until much later that we realised how valuable this experience was for many children who were decorating a Christmas tree for the first time, and how much they looked forward to this every year.

As her daughter, she encouraged my interest in women’s rights and activism, taking me with her to protests even before I was a teenager, instilling in me a deep sense of the importance of human rights. I was her go-to person whom she asked to read and critique everything she wrote. When I moved overseas in 1996, she taught herself to type and become tech savvy so she could email me every day. She was also an amazing cook, creating innovative dishes with the limited resources available in Pakistan. Once again, I always had the privilege of being the first person to try everything she made. As a grandmother, Hilda’s youthful playfulness shone bright. From when my daughter was a child, Hilda would spend hours doing arts crafts, making kid-friendly meals, watching cartoons, and reading storybooks. This fostered a deep bond and they remained incredibly close for the rest of Hilda’s life.

It is difficult to do justice to Hilda Saeed’s life and legacy in mere words, and even more difficult to accept that she is now mentioned in the past tense. She has left giant shoes that are hard to fill, but again, we will try.

Rahal Saeed is a global health, capacity-building, and gender specialist. rahalsaeed@gmail.com

Adeera Batlay has just completed her BA in Geo-Science and started a teaching position in August. adeera2003@gmail.com