The late Fatima Mier was born on the 12th of August 1928, and on the 90th anniversary of her birth, Mier would like to pay tribute to the memory of a most remarkable woman. Her birth in urban in 1928 made it inevitable that Fatima Mier should be subjected to the evils and indignities of a racially segregated society. But her decision to fight the system was her own choice, and one in which she never wavered. Her courage was, however, just one aspect of her personality, and a creativity deserves closer inspection. In South Africa's struggle for freedom, we remember certain people, but one area that's often forgotten are the women that were involved in the struggle. Today, we pay tribute to one particular woman, Fatima Mier, who is not only a struggle icon, but also a painter and a writer. Plus, we celebrate her birth day. Education was a priority for Fatima's family, and she attended Deban Indian Girls High School. At 816, she was already raising funds for famine relief in Bengal. Anjubeta Future husband is Smile Mier, where they participated in the Indian Passive Resistance campaign in 1946. Both she and her husband were active in the Congress Alliance and the Defiance campaign, and her activism led to her being banned. She never backed down, and in 1976, she spent six months in the then Women's Jail, which now forms part of the Constitution Hill Complex in Johannesburg. It was during this time that she began to document the life of her fellow prisoners visually, and her work now forms part of her permanent exhibition at the precinct. Fatima's paintings represented her everyday surroundings, so a lot of them were painted with scenes of Johannesburg and what you could see from within the prison walls. Freedom remained tantalizingly close, but inaccessible. Many of the women were political prisoners, including Fatima's longtime comrade and friend, Mama Winnie Mandela. As an artist and chronically, Fatima made no attempt to purify life in jail. Instead of painting flowers, as the authorities had instructed, she chose to reflect everyday reality, and the way in which the inmates battled the soul-destroying tedium and loneliness of imprisonment. The cells contain artifacts from the Sarah, providing context for the artworks on display, and a hint of what life was like for Fatima and her fellow activists during this time. What we see at Constitution Hill is simply a representation of Fatima Mia, but one of the things that can never be broken is a bond between a mother and a daughter, no matter the distance or the adversity that they have to endure. Today I get to spend a little bit of time with Fatima Mia's daughter to get to know the woman behind the paintings. Having earned a master's degree in sociality, Fatima Mia was appointed to the staff of the University of Nettle, and later became a fellow of the London School of Economics. She received two honorary doctorates for her work to promote human and women's rights, while also raising three children, Shamin, Rashid and Shanas, who made the law her career. Judge Mia, it's an absolute pleasure to have you on Mele. What drove her to become part of this struggle? She came from a family that had a very strong sense of social justice, and this was imbued in her at a very early age. Her father was a journalist. He brought up his large family to be aware of issues of the day, the injustices around them, and my mother just soaked this in and this translated into whatever she achieved throughout her life. What was the turning moment for her? What got her involved in this struggle? At the age of 17 as a young woman, she made her first political speech. It was during the PASA of Resistance campaign, and perhaps that might have been one of the turning moments for her. I actually read quite an interesting story once about your mom taking you to different parts of Durban, with your brother and sister to explore the city and to paint. My mother was a very adventurous person. She was an academic. She was an artist. She's written the script for a Bollywood film. My mother wrote plays. She's even scripted a dance drama. In addition to that, she has written at least some 40 academic journals. She has lectured all over the world as an academic. Now all of this added up to an extraordinary human being. So when you say she took us to paint and she took us to do all these kind of things, yes she did. But to us that seemed pretty normal, because that was the only mother we knew. But there was this kind of dichotomy, because on the one hand there was this person who could do anything. But on the other hand there was a very strong traditional and conventional side to her. She was very rooted in tradition, in the family, in the Indian community. Tell me a little bit more about your mom's books and this recent book. Perhaps one of the best-known books is the first biography of Nelson Mandela, higher than hope. Whilst he was in prison, Mandela requested her to come and see him. And he asked her if she would take on the writing of higher than hope. And perhaps I can just read something to you about what he said in her biography. I'm going to read what Winnie Mandela says in the forward. When comrade Nelson Mandela was moved to Victor Verstere in Paul after 1988, I received a message that he wanted to see me urgently. On that occasion he said he wanted to see Fatima to ask her to write his biography. Fatima had followed Madiba's instructions to be brutally honest and had researched Madiba's private life and his numerous indiscretions. The Oliver Tomba was furious and demanded that all the chapters dealing with this be expunged. Fatima and I did just that, but she later told me that she kept those pages somewhere in a vault in the bank. Your parents were quite influential in your path of development. I mean you've now become a lawyer, you're a judge, and you're changing the world through law. They imbued in all three of their children a very strong sense of social responsibility. And I think that informed all our decisions in life and whatever we did. She wore a saree at every occasion that she could. Why was that? My mother was a woman of great style, great elegance, great beauty. And she had an eye for beautiful clothes, fabrics, sarees. She was an Indian woman of her time and saree is a beautiful garment. Considering that we are in women's month and it is your mom's birthday, what message do you think your mom would have for the woman of South Africa? Be champions against injustice and be warriors of the poor and speak art against injustice. When reasonable men and women remain silent, evil flourishes. What message do you have for the youth of South Africa? Be your best selves and live lives of integrity and dignity. Judge Mia, thank you so much for sharing stories of your mom with us and giving a little bit of insight into her life. From as I would say as South Africans, it's important for us to remember the people that were involved in South Africa's fight for freedom. And to use their lives as examples for us moving forward. Women are practical. They see the problem and they go and work in trying to solve that problem.