My mother, Saida Sherif, who has died aged 90, moved to Britain in 1965 as a single mother with two young children, and committed herself to humanitarian and educational work.
Saida was born in Delhi, an only daughter after five sons. Her father, Shamsul Haq, was a civil servant and her mother, Razia (nee Syed), came from a line of religious scholars. She attended the Jamia Millia school in Karol Bagh, Delhi, where she learned to use the microphone to address the audience in the school hall and was soon hired for the children’s Sunday programme on All India Radio.
