Fahmida Riaz
Encyclopedia
Fahmida Riaz is a well known Urdu writer, poet
, and feminist of Pakistan
. She is author of Godaavari, Khatt-e Marmuz, and Khana e Aab O Gil, the first translation of the Masnavi
of Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi into Urdu
.
, India
. Her father, Riaz-ud-Din Ahmed, was an educationist, who had a great influence in mapping and establishing modern education system for Sindh
. Her family settled in Hyderabad following her father's transfer to Sindh. Fahmida learnt Urdu, and Sindhi language
literature in childhood and later Persian
.
Her early life was marked by the loss of her father when she was just 4 years old. She was already making poetry at this young age. Her mother (Husna Begum) supported the family unit through entrepreneurial efforts until Fahmida entered college, when she started work as a newscaster for Radio Pakistan. Fahmida's first poetry collection was written at this time.
She worked in an advertising agency in Karachi before starting her own Urdu publication "Awaz". She met and married Zafar Ali Ujan, a leftist political worker and had two children with him. The liberal and politically charged content of Awaz drew the attention of the Zia regime and both Fahmida and Zafar were charged with multiple cases, the magazine shut down and Zafar thrown in jail. Fahmida was bailed by a fan of her works before she could be taken to jail and fled to India with her two small children and her sister on the excuse of a Mushaira invitation. She has relatives in India. Her husband later joined her there after his release from jail. The family spent almost seven years in exile before returning to Pakistan on the eve of Benazir Bhutto's wedding reception. During this time Fahmida had been poet in residence for a university in Dehli.
She was appointed MD of the National Book Foundation in Benazir's first tenure and later persecuted by the first Nawaz Sharif govt., labelled an Indian agent and made virtually unemployable because of threats from the govt.. She worked three simultaneous jobs to support the needs of her growing children at this time. In the second tenure of Benazir's govt. she was given a post at the Quaed e Azam Academy. When Benazir's govt. toppled a second time, Fahmida was again persona non grata for Islamabad.
Fahmida lost her son Kabeer in October 2007. He drowned while swimming with friends on a picnic. This was soon after Fahmida had translated fifty of Rumi's poems dedicated to Shams Tabriz. She is currently MD Urdu Dictionary Board
Awards:
She spent many years in exile in India in the 1980s during the dictatorship of General Zia ul Haq, living in Delhi and taught at Jamia Millia Islamia
. She enjoyed the patronage of Indian Government. Her husband, an activist of Sindhi nationalism
had also accompanied her to India. They returned to Pakistan though, quite disillusioned. Fahmida expressed the reasons for her disillusionment with the rise of Hindu nationalism
in India in the following poem:
Naya Bharat (New India)
Tum bilkul hum jaisey nikley
Aab tak Kahan chupay thay bhai
Voh moorkhta, voh ghaamarpan
jis mai hum nay sadian gawaeen
Aakhir pahunchi dua tumhaari
Aray badhai bahut badhai
You turned out to be just like us;
Similarly stupid, wallowing in the past,
You’ve reached the same doorstep at last.
Congratulations, many congratulations.
"Preyt dharm ka naach rahaa hai
Qaim Hindu raj karo gay
Saarey ultey kaj karogay
apna chaman taraj karogay
Tum bhee baithey karogey sochaa
Kaun hai Hindu, kaun naheen hai
Tum Bhi Karo gay Fatway Jari
Ek jaap saa kartey jao
Barham Bar Yehi Dorhao
Kitna veer mahaan tha Bharat
Kitna Alishaan tha Bharat"
"Your demon [of] religion dances like a clown,
Whatever you do will be upside down.
You too will sit deep in thought and ponder,
Who is Hindu, who is not.
You too will issue Fatwas
Keep repeating the mantra like a parrot,
India was like the land of the brave"
(translated by Khushwant Singh)
Her work is remarkable for its emotionally charged references to social and political injustice. She has been a prominent voice in the feminist struggle in Pakistan, where her poems both directly and insidiously erode at the foundations of male dominance. She has also published several gender equal stories, feminist translations, and some deconstruction of the criticism of feminist work.
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, and feminist of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
. She is author of Godaavari, Khatt-e Marmuz, and Khana e Aab O Gil, the first translation of the Masnavi
Masnavi
The Masnavi, Masnavi-I Ma'navi or Mesnevi , also written Mathnawi, Ma'navi, or Mathnavi, is an extensive poem written in Persian by Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, the celebrated Persian Sufi saint and poet. It is one of the best known and most influential works of both Sufism and Persian literature...
of Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi into Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
.
Early life
Fahmida Riaz was born on July 28, 1946 in a literary family of Meerut, UPUttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. Her father, Riaz-ud-Din Ahmed, was an educationist, who had a great influence in mapping and establishing modern education system for Sindh
Sindh
Sindh historically referred to as Ba'ab-ul-Islam , is one of the four provinces of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. It is also locally known as the "Mehran". Though Muslims form the largest religious group in Sindh, a good number of Christians, Zoroastrians and Hindus can...
. Her family settled in Hyderabad following her father's transfer to Sindh. Fahmida learnt Urdu, and Sindhi language
Sindhi language
Sindhi is the language of the Sindh region of Pakistan that is spoken by the Sindhi people. In India, it is among 22 constitutionally recognized languages, where Sindhis are a sizeable minority. It is spoken by 53,410,910 people in Pakistan, according to the national government's Statistics Division...
literature in childhood and later Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
.
Her early life was marked by the loss of her father when she was just 4 years old. She was already making poetry at this young age. Her mother (Husna Begum) supported the family unit through entrepreneurial efforts until Fahmida entered college, when she started work as a newscaster for Radio Pakistan. Fahmida's first poetry collection was written at this time.
Family and Work
She was persuaded by family to enter into an arranged marriage after graduation from college, and spent a few years in the UK with her first husband before returning to Pakistan after a divorce. During this time she worked with the BBC Urdu service (Radio) and got a degree in film making. She has one daughter from her first marriage.She worked in an advertising agency in Karachi before starting her own Urdu publication "Awaz". She met and married Zafar Ali Ujan, a leftist political worker and had two children with him. The liberal and politically charged content of Awaz drew the attention of the Zia regime and both Fahmida and Zafar were charged with multiple cases, the magazine shut down and Zafar thrown in jail. Fahmida was bailed by a fan of her works before she could be taken to jail and fled to India with her two small children and her sister on the excuse of a Mushaira invitation. She has relatives in India. Her husband later joined her there after his release from jail. The family spent almost seven years in exile before returning to Pakistan on the eve of Benazir Bhutto's wedding reception. During this time Fahmida had been poet in residence for a university in Dehli.
She was appointed MD of the National Book Foundation in Benazir's first tenure and later persecuted by the first Nawaz Sharif govt., labelled an Indian agent and made virtually unemployable because of threats from the govt.. She worked three simultaneous jobs to support the needs of her growing children at this time. In the second tenure of Benazir's govt. she was given a post at the Quaed e Azam Academy. When Benazir's govt. toppled a second time, Fahmida was again persona non grata for Islamabad.
Fahmida lost her son Kabeer in October 2007. He drowned while swimming with friends on a picnic. This was soon after Fahmida had translated fifty of Rumi's poems dedicated to Shams Tabriz. She is currently MD Urdu Dictionary Board
Awards:
- Hemmet Hellman Award for Resistance Literature from Human Rights Watch
- Al Muftah Award for Literature: Poetry
- Sheikh Ayaz Award for Literature: Poetry from Sindh Government
- Presidential Pride of Performance Award for Literature: Poetry
- Sitara -e- Imtiaz on March 23, 2010 by the President of Pakistan
As an activist
Fahmida remained part of social and political activities since her academic life. She got involved in students politics when she was student of M.A. in Sindh University. She spoke and wrote against the University Ordinance and the ban on the students' union during the Ayub Khan regime.She spent many years in exile in India in the 1980s during the dictatorship of General Zia ul Haq, living in Delhi and taught at Jamia Millia Islamia
Jamia Millia Islamia
Jamia Millia Islamia is an Indian Central University located in Delhi. It was established at Aligarh in United Provinces, India in 1920. It became a Central University by an act of the Indian Parliament in 1988...
. She enjoyed the patronage of Indian Government. Her husband, an activist of Sindhi nationalism
Sindhi nationalism
Sindhi nationalism is the political expression of ethno-national consciousness of the Sindhi people, who inhabit the ethno-linguistic region of Sindh started by the Ghulam Murtaza Shah, which lies in current day Pakistan....
had also accompanied her to India. They returned to Pakistan though, quite disillusioned. Fahmida expressed the reasons for her disillusionment with the rise of Hindu nationalism
Hindu nationalism
Hindu nationalism has been collectively referred to as the expressions of social and political thought, based on the native spiritual and cultural traditions of historical India...
in India in the following poem:
Naya Bharat (New India)
Tum bilkul hum jaisey nikley
Aab tak Kahan chupay thay bhai
Voh moorkhta, voh ghaamarpan
jis mai hum nay sadian gawaeen
Aakhir pahunchi dua tumhaari
Aray badhai bahut badhai
You turned out to be just like us;
Similarly stupid, wallowing in the past,
You’ve reached the same doorstep at last.
Congratulations, many congratulations.
"Preyt dharm ka naach rahaa hai
Qaim Hindu raj karo gay
Saarey ultey kaj karogay
apna chaman taraj karogay
Tum bhee baithey karogey sochaa
Kaun hai Hindu, kaun naheen hai
Tum Bhi Karo gay Fatway Jari
Ek jaap saa kartey jao
Barham Bar Yehi Dorhao
Kitna veer mahaan tha Bharat
Kitna Alishaan tha Bharat"
"Your demon [of] religion dances like a clown,
Whatever you do will be upside down.
You too will sit deep in thought and ponder,
Who is Hindu, who is not.
You too will issue Fatwas
Keep repeating the mantra like a parrot,
India was like the land of the brave"
(translated by Khushwant Singh)
Her work is remarkable for its emotionally charged references to social and political injustice. She has been a prominent voice in the feminist struggle in Pakistan, where her poems both directly and insidiously erode at the foundations of male dominance. She has also published several gender equal stories, feminist translations, and some deconstruction of the criticism of feminist work.
Literary work
Her first poem was published in Funoon of Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi, when she was merely 15. Her first collection of poetry appeared just after two months of marriage at the age of 22.- Pathar ki Zaban
- Khatt-e Marmuz
- Godavari
- Kya tum poora chand na dekho ge
- Karachi
- Gulabi kabootar
- Badan darida
- Dhoop
- Aadmi ki zindagi
- Khule dareeche se
- Halqa meri zanjeer ka
- Adhoora aadmi
- Pakiustan, literature and society
- Qafle parindon ke
- Ye Khana e Aab O Gil