In 1985 Shaikh was elected to the executive committee of the Islamic Society of UD-W. On 4 September 1985, she was arrested for distributing pamphlets that called for a consumer boycott of white-owned businesses in Durban. The boycott had been called by the Federation of South African Trade Unions (Fosatu), the largest trade union federation in the country and supported by the Muslim Students Association of South Africa (MSA), which had organised this particular pamphlet blitz. Shaikh spent the next few hours locked up at Durban's CR Swart Police Station (now Durban Central Police Station) with the president of the MSA, Na'eem Jeenah.[http://naeemjeenah.shams.za.org]. This was their first meeting and they would marry 2 years later.