Educationist Dr Shama Talat Hasib (née Scheik) breathed her last on April 25 at her home in San Francisco in California, US, after a long battle with brain cancer. She was 72.
Shama leaves behind her husband Syed Iftikhar Rukun Hasib, son Waqar and grandson Kai in San Francisco, and her elderly mother in Dhaka among a host of relatives and well-wishers.
Born in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1945, Shama moved with her family to the then East Pakistan and settled in Dhaka after the 1947 partition of the subcontinent.
Shama had studied at St. Francis Xavier’s Convent (now Green Herald School) and was one of the youngest pupils to take the Senior Cambridge exam, at the age of just 15, earning a First Division.
A year later she was selected as an exchange student by the American Field Service Programme in the US, where she graduated from Jefferson High School in Colorado. Returning home, she pursued her BA in English Literature from Holy Cross College.
Afterwards, Shama went to Karachi to secure an MBA degree. Political troubles which surfaced after the 1965 Pakistani presidential polls forced her to return to Dhaka and enrol in Dhaka University for a Master’s degree in English.
Shama then began her teaching career at Eden Girl’s College. Later, she was awarded a scholarship to study at Edinburgh University in Scotland.
Following her marriage, Shama returned to the UK to live in Kent, where she served in the State school system.
Relocating to the US in 1979, Shama attained a post-graduate and then a PhD degree, finally starting full-time teaching at San Francisco City College. She retired from there recently after her cancer became acute.
Shama was a keen aficionado of the arts, music, film, theatre, quilting and cooking. She was a member of a Dhaka-based drama group, the Prometheans, and was actively involved in Dhaka Girl Guides, representing her Magh Bazaar Company.
She had remained determined to pursue her career in teaching, even through her eight-year battle with cancer.
Thursday, June 04, 2026
