Writer, columnist, filmmaker and activist Sadia Dehlvi, a prominent critic of radical interpretations of Islam who urged a holistic understanding of the religion and was also a vocal critic of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act on the ground that it discriminated against Muslims, died here late Wednesday after a prolonged battle with cancer. She had turned 63 on July 16.

Hailing from a family of writers and publishers -- her grandfather Hafiz Yusuf founded the iconic Urdu film and literary monthly Shamaa in 1938 -- Dehlvi was a columnist with The Hindustan Times and regularly contributed to several prominent Urdu, Hindi and English newspapers and magazines.