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Mita Rahman, 65, an actress who lived in St Peter Port for more than 30 years, has died after contracting pancreatic cancer.
She was particularly well known in the country of her birth - Bangladesh - under her maiden name Mita Chowdhury, where she starred in numerous televised and theatrical productions from a very young age.
Pictured: Mita Rahman.
A close friend of Mrs Rahman, Guernsey resident Ann Brehaut, first met her in the late 1980s when the pair both worked at The Procureur's office. Mrs Brehaut described her as a "well-respected and popular" member of the office team. Mrs Brehaut added: "We worked together till Mita left to further her career at Health and Social Care, but we stayed very close friends, going out for meals and chatting till two in the morning."
Another Guernsey woman, Nicky Challis, who was friends with Mrs Rahman for more than 40 years, added: "Mita was a talented, beautiful, fiercely intelligent and proud Bengali woman. She and I laughed until we cried and cried until we laughed, there was always something to discuss. The last thing she said to me was in June, when she apologised for not getting me a birthday present. I replied in all truth that her friendship was the greatest gift I could have. I miss her so much."
Mrs Rahman was born in 1958 in Dhaka, Bangladesh - then East Pakistan - the youngest of three children of Aminul Haque Chowdhury and Noor Akhtar Banu. As a child she lived through the Bangladesh War of Independence in 1971, in which her paternal grandfather was killed. Her acting career was launched after she impressed in a school play when she was just nine. Her performance was spotted by a TV producer who recruited her for a television series. Mrs Rahman was chosen for her first televised play in 1973 when she was 15 and from then on combined TV roles with her studies. She also joined the radio station, Bangladesh Betar, as a newsreader and compère for a programme called World Music.
Pictured: Mita Rahman and her husband Shahid, who died last year.
In 1977 she married Shahid Rahman, a teacher at Elizabeth College, and moved to Guernsey the following year. The couple had a son, Miran, and a daughter, Naveen. While in Guernsey, Mrs Rahman worked as a litigation assistant for the States law officers at St James Chambers. But she never forgot her dramatic roots and took part in productions staged by Guernsey Amateur Dramatic & Operatic Club. (GADOC)
Following her husband’s retirement in 2006, the couple spent most of the next eight years in Bangladesh, where Mrs Rahman successfully resurrected her Bangla acting career - despite the lengthy break - again securing major roles both for the stage and television. She also co-founded a theatre troupe - StageOne Dhaka.
She and her husband returned to Guernsey in 2013, then moved to Hertfordshire in England several years later to be closer to children and grandchildren. Mrs Rahman began auditioning for new acting opportunities and was chosen to play a diverse selection of characters, including parts in ITV’s Good Karma Hospital series, Channel 4 comedy We are Lady Parts, BBC Radio 4 drama, The Half Widow and the BBC’s critically acclaimed hospital drama, This is Going to Hurt. She was picked for a small role in the film Luther: The Fallen Sun, but was unable to take this on after being diagnosed with cancer in November 2021.
Pictured: Mita Rahman.
Beyond her acting work, she was part of Bengal Muslin, a project dedicated to researching and reviving this "lost" Bengali textile. And in 2018 she was heavily involved in rallying support for Shahidul Alam, a photo journalist who had been imprisoned for criticising the Bangladesh government's violent crackdown on protesters. She was also a volunteer for Friend's Hand, a Dhaka-based breast cancer support organisation. In Guernsey, she took after her own daughter by taking up the sport of fencing for at least five years as a member of Sarnia Sword Club.
Mrs Rahman's husband, Shahid, died in October 2022 following his own battle with cancer. Mrs Rahman died on 29 June in a hospice in Letchworth, Hertfordshire. Her funeral service is due to take place shortly in Stevenage. As well as her children, she is survived by two older brothers, Kaiser and Shabir, grandchildren Safal, Mala and Rafiq and son-in-law Robert.
All images and text supplied by Miran Rahman.
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