Khalida Bashir, born circa 1928 in Amritsar, British Colonial India, belonged to an esteemed Muslim family of the Kashmiri diaspora. Her maternal grandfather, Mian Firoz Din, was the district session judge in Amritsar. She was the niece of Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew, a renowned freedom fighter, and she was closely related to Sadat Hassan Manto, a notable author. Her family residence, Sheesh Mahal in Amritsar, served as a hub for political activism and literary gatherings.
Following the partition of India in 1947, Khalida relocated to Rawalpindi, Pakistan. There, she married Bashir Uddin Ahmad, a young Aligarhian lawyer and army officer whose family had been expelled from Srinagar, Indian Occupied Kashmir. They had four children: a son and three daughters. In 1997, they relocated to the United States. Following her husband’s passing in 2016, Khalida moved to Beaverton, to live with her daughter and son-in-law, Shehla and Irfan Aziz. Since 2022, she had been under the care of Maryville Nursing Center in Beaverton.
Khalida was an exceptional cook, gardener, and a sports enthusiast. She was a table tennis champion during her college years.
Khalida’s legacy encompasses her four children: Tariq, Aliya, Shehla, and Huma; ten grandchildren, and fourteen great-grandchildren.
Khalida was especially proud of the Bashir Uddin Ahmad Scholarship Fund, established in 2016 at Muslim Educational Trust (MET) for deserving students
Inna lillāhe wa inna ilāyehe rāje’ūn.
