Tariqas were brought to China in the 17th century by Ma Laichi and other Chinese Sufis who had studied in Mecca and Yemen, and had
also been influenced by spiritual descendants of the Kashgarian Sufi master Afaq Khoja.
She was awarded the 1998 Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in Direction, given by Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama Born in 1947 in Mumbai to Ebrahim Alkazi, noted theatre director and the first director of the National School of Drama; while her father was of Arab descent, her mother Roshan Alkazi,
belonged to the Gujarati Ismail Khoja community and did the costumes for almost all of her father's plays.