Rahima Moosa (13 October 1922 - 29 May 1993) was a member of the Transvaal Indian Congress and later the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

. She is well known for the role she played in the national uprising of women on 9 August 1956. Moosa was also a

shop steward A union representative, union steward, or shop steward is an employee of an organization or company who represents and defends the interests of their fellow employees as a labor union member and official. Rank-and-file members of the union hold ...

for the '' Cape Town Food and Canning Workers Union''.

Her life

Rahima Moosa was one of identical sisters born in Strand just outside

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second larges ...

in 1922. She was brought up in a liberated Islamic environment and she attended Trafalgar High School in

District Six District Six (Afrikaans ''Distrik Ses'') is a former inner-city residential area in Cape Town, South Africa. Over 60,000 of its inhabitants were forcibly removed during the 1970s by the apartheid regime. The area of District Six is now ...

. She dropped out of school with little formal education. Annoyed by the policies of the

Apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

government she and her twin sister Fatima campaigned for change. Rahima was a shop steward and in 1951 she married her comrade activist Dr. Hassen “Ike” Mohamed Moosa who had already stood trial for treason. They moved to Johannesburg and had four children. Both of them were very active in the

South African Indian Congress The South African Indian Congress (SAIC) was an organisation founded in 1921 in Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal), South Africa. The congress is famous for its strong participation by Mahatma Gandhi and other prominent South African Indian figures durin ...

and later the

. Together they played a role organising the 1955, she was also on the forefront of the womans day march representing indian woman during apartheid Congress of the People and the

Freedom Charter The Freedom Charter was the statement of core principles of the South African Congress Alliance, which consisted of the African National Congress (ANC) and its allies: the South African Indian Congress, the South African Congress of Democra ...

. Rahima, Sophia De Bruyn,

Helen Joseph Helen Beatrice Joseph (''née'' Fennell) (8 April 1905 – 25 December 1992) was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Born in Sussex, England, Helen graduated with a degree in English from the University of London in 1927 and then departed ...

and

Lillian Ngoyi Lilian Masediba Matabane Ngoyi, "Mma Ngoyi", (25 September 1911 – 13 March 1980) was a South African Anti-Apartheid Movement, anti-apartheid activist. She was the first woman elected to the executive committee of the African National Con ...

led 20,000

women's march Women's March may refer to: * Women's March on Versailles, a 1789 march in Paris * Women's Sunday, a 1908 suffragette march in London * Woman Suffrage Procession, a 1913 march and rally in Washington, D.C. * Women's March (South Africa), a 1956 m ...

on 9 August 1956 to demonstrate against the further strengthening of

Pass Laws In South Africa, pass laws were a form of internal passport system designed to segregate the population, manage urbanization and allocate migrant labor. Also known as the natives' law, pass laws severely limited the movements of not only black ...

. This day is now celebrated annually as

National Women's Day National Women's Day is a South African public holiday celebrated annually on 9 August. The day commemorates the 1956 march of approximately 20,000 women to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to petition against the country's pass laws that requir ...

. Rahima Moosa was listed by the Apartheid regime despite becoming ill after a heart attack in the 1960s. She died on 26 May 1993, a year before South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994. Her husband and her children remained active in the African National Congress after her death. In 2008,

Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital is a maternity hospital in Coronationville, Johannesburg, South Africa. Prior to 2008, it was known as the Coronation Hospital. History The hospital was opened in October 1944 in the suburb of Coronation ...

was named after her.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moosa, Rahima Muslim South African anti-apartheid activists South African women in politics 1922 births 1993 deaths Members of the African National Congress South African people of Indian descent Alumni of Trafalgar High School (Cape Town) Members of the Order of Luthuli