Law Student Dies In Peru Accident

Shirin Shakir, a second-year law student at Harvard Law School, died this weekend in a white water rafting accident in Cusco, Peru.

Her death was reported by Law School Dean Elena Kagan in an e-mail sent to the school’s faculty and students yesterday morning. Over spring break, Shakir had taken a vacation to Peru with a group of law students from Harvard.

“Most of her closest friends were with her on the trip,” Dean of Students Ellen M. Cosgrove said. “Many are going straight from Peru to New York, which is where the funeral ceremony is being held tomorrow.”

According to information provided by the Shakir family on remembershirin.com, a website they established for friends and families to share stories and pictures of Shirin, her older brother and uncle were scheduled to return from Peru with her body this morning. Her body will then be taken to the Al-Khoei Islamic Center in Jamaica, N.Y. where the funeral service is scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m.

A native of Great Neck, N.Y., and a 2003 graduate of Williams College, Shakir was an active member of the Harvard Law School Council, the International Law Society, and the Public Interest Auction.

She worked with the New York law firm Kramer and Levin over the past summer, where she assisted the firm in its successful effort to win political asylum for a persecuted Togolese woman.

Michael J. Sternhell, one of the attorneys who worked on the case, said that Shakir was “very, very well thought of here” and that “she provided invaluable help” throughout the summer.

Lidia Rekas, who has known Shakir since they were both in fifth grade, said that her last memory of Shakir was when Shakir helped her prepare for the Graduate Management Admission Test.

“We stayed up all night and ate pizza and I slept on her couch that night,” Rekas said. “Shirin’s absence leaves me with a huge hole in my heart.”

Rekas, a frequent triathlon competitor, said that she was participating in the Ironman, considered the most grueling of triathlons, in July, and that she will dedicate this race to her.

“Over the 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run, I will celebrate her life and her memory,” Rekas said.

The Law School is also planning to hold a memorial on the Harvard campus in the coming weeks and has made counseling and support services available for students and staff.

Cosgrove, the dean of students, sent an e-mail to the Law School community Monday afternoon in which she said that University Health Services therapists are available to counsel grieving students and staff.

“We will [also] have an open drop in session with a therapist from UHS tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon at 5pm in Pound 335,” Consgrove wrote in the e-mail. “This will be a casual drop in/drop out session for those who wish to speak with the therapist and other students who are dealing with this loss.”

Cusco, a city in southeastern Peru, is world famous for its white water rafting. Though no details about the accident have been released, some of the rapids in the area, including several famous stretches, are of type V.

Shakir is the second Harvard student to die in an accident in Peru in recent years.

In June 2001, Haley S. Surti ’01 died in a bus crash in Peru just days after her graduation from the College. A writer for one of the Let’s Go travel guides, Surti’s death was the first and only fatality of a Let’s Go writer in the publication’s 45-year history.

—Staff writer Paras D. Bhayani can be reached at pbhayani@fas.harvard.edu.