Ada Jafarey ( ur, : ) , often spelled Ada Jafri (22 August 1924 – 12 March 2015), was a Pakistani poet who is regarded as the first major female

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' and has been called "The First Lady of Urdu Poetry". She was also an author and was considered a prominent figure in contemporary

Urdu literature Urdu literature ( ur, , ) is literature in the Urdu language. While it tends to be dominated by poetry, especially the verse forms of the ''ghazal '' غزل and '' nazm '' نظم, it has expanded into other styles of writing, including that of ...

. She received awards from the

Government of Pakistan The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the four provinces, two autonomous territorie ...

, the Pakistan Writers' Guild, and literary societies of North America and Europe in recognition of her efforts.

Life

Early life

Ada Jafarey was born on 22 August 1924, in

Badayun Budaun is commonly pronounced Badayun is a city and a seat of Budaun district, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is located near the Ganges river in the centre of Western Uttar Pradesh. Budaun was the capital of Delhi Sultanate for four years from 1210 C ...

, U.P. Her

birth name A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth r ...

was Aziz Jahan. Her father, Maulvi Badrul Hasan died when she was three, and her mother reared her. She started composing poetry when she was twelve years old, under the pen name of Ada Badayuni. She spent her early life within impassable social bounds.

Married life

She married Nurul Hasan Jafarey on 29 January 1947, in

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. After her marriage, she took her pen name Ada Jafarey. Her husband, Nurul Hasan, was a top-ranking civil servant of the Federal Government of India. Ada Jafarey also moved with her husband to

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

after the

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

of Pakistan in 1947. Her husband was a littérateur himself who wrote columns for both English and Urdu newspapers. He also served as the president of the

Anjuman-i Taraqqi-i Urdu Anjuman-i Taraqqi-i Urdu ( ur, ; ''Organisation for the Progress of Urdu'') was an organisation working for the promotion and dissemination of Urdu language, literature and culture in British India. After the partition of India, the separated ...

. Nurul Hasan, a major inspiration to her writing, died on 3 December 1995.

Later life

She had been residing in

, Pakistan. She used to frequently travel between Karachi and

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, playing an active role in promoting Urdu.

Family

Ada Jafarey and Nurul Hasan Jafarey had three children, Sabiha, Azmi and Aamir. Sabiha Jafarey is married to Zubair Iqbal and is settled in

Potomac, Maryland Potomac () is a census-designated place (CDP) in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, named after the nearby Potomac River. Potomac is the seventh most educated small town in America, based on percentage of residents with postsecondary deg ...

, US. They have three children Sabah Iqbal, Yusuf Iqbal and Sameer Iqbal. Azmi Jafarey and his wife Shua Jafarey are now settled in

Andover, Massachusetts Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was settled in 1642 and incorporated in 1646."Andover" in ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th ed., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 387. As of th ...

, US. They have two sons, Faaez Jafarey and Aazim Jafarey. Ada Jafarey lived with her son, Aamir Jafarey, his wife, Maha Jafarey, together with their daughter Asra Jafarey in

until her death. Ada Jafarey has two great-grandchildren, Sabine Rana and Rizwan Rana, children of Sabah Iqbal Rana and her husband Fawad Rana.

Death

Ada Jafarey died in the evening of 12 March 2015 in a hospital in Karachi where she was being treated, at the age of 90. The Pakistani Minister for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage,

Pervez Rashid Pervaiz Rashid ( ur, ) is a Pakistani politician, and the former Federal Minister of Information, Broadcasting, and National Heritage and Minister for Law, Justice and Human Rights in the Third Sharif ministry. A member of Pakistan Muslim Le ...

, the Governor of Sindh, Dr. Ishratul Ebad Khan, the

Pakistani Prime Minister The prime minister of Pakistan ( ur, , romanized: Wazīr ē Aʿẓam , ) is the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen cabinet, despite the president of Pakist ...

Mian Nawaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (Urdu, Punjabi: ; born 25 December 1949) is a Pakistani businessman and politician who has served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms. He is the longest-serving prime minister of Pak ...

, Dr. Muhammad Qasim Bughio, Chairman

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

, and Zahida Parveen, Director-General PAL, expressed sorrow over the death of Jafarey. They praised her work in the field of Urdu poetry and prayed for her soul. Her funeral prayer was held in Al-Hilal Mosque, Karachi. She was buried in the PECHS graveyard,

Jamshed Town Jamshed Town ( sd, جمشيد ٽائون , ur, ) lies in the central part of Karachi, Pakistan. To the northwest is Liaquatabad Town across the Lyari River, while to the east is Gulshan Town and to the southeast is Korangi Town across the Ma ...

, Karachi on 13 March 2015.

Literary career

The first female poet

Ada Jafarey was part of a traditionally conservative society where women were not allowed to think and express independently. But she was bold enough to express herself. Despite having traditionality ingrained in her personality, she took part in modern art. As early as 1950, she was recognized as ''the First Lady of Urdu Poetry''. Her mother, and her husband Nurul Hasan Jafarey, encouraged her to keep on her literary activities in spite of social difficulties. She was the student of great poets like

Akhtar Sheerani Akhtar Shirani (born Muhammad Dawood Khan; 4 May 1905 – 9 September 1948; also spelled Sheerani or Sherani), was an Urdu poet. He is considered to be one of the leading romantic poets of Urdu language. Early life and career Akhtar Shairan ...

and Jafar Ali Khan Asar Lakhnavi and used to get her poetry checked and corrected by them.

Style

Ada Jafarey writes in a gender-neutral mode, though her works include feminist themes like discrimination and dehumanisation of women and of them being viewed as sexual objects. Her personality seems absent from her poetry. Ada Jafarey wrote of her experiences as a wife and mother in a modified traditional idiom, but also noticed the lack of fulfillment that accompanied these relationships.

Genre

Ada Jafarey's works are mostly Ghazals, but she also experimented with , as well as Urdu

Haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a ''kigo'', or s ...

. She had mastered both genres of Urdu poetry, and ''ghazal''. In her ghazals, she took the pen name, . She has also written a few .

Works

Ada Jafarey's first ghazal was published in

's magazine, , in 1945. Ada Jafarey published her first collection of poems, in 1950. Her book, , containing short essays with short biographies and brief commentaries on the work previous Urdu poets was published in 1987. Besides, she published five collections of

Urdu poetry Urdu poetry ( ur, ) is a tradition of poetry and has many different forms. Today, it is an important part of the cultures of South Asia. According to Naseer Turabi there are five major poets of Urdu which are Mir Taqi Mir (d.1810), Mirza Ghali ...

(, , , , and ), in addition to her autobiography (), and forty research papers. She also published her collection of Urdu

, Her ghazal, was sung and popularised by

Ustad Amanat Ali Khan Ustad Amanat Ali Khan ( ur, ; ; 1922 – 18 September 1974) was a Pakistani classical vocalist from the Patiala gharana tradition of music and is widely regarded as one of the finest classical and ''ghazal'' singers of all time. Together ...

. The first couplet of that ghazal is: Transliteration: : :

Awards

In 1955, Hamdard Foundation,

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...

recognized her as the "Outstanding Female Poet of the Century". Later, she was awarded the

Adamjee Literary Award Adamjee Literary Award, also known as Adamjee Prize, is a literary award bestowed by the government of Pakistan. It is presented by the president. The award seeks to recognize those people who have made "meritorious contribution" to the literature ...

by the Pakistan Writers' Guild in 1967 for her second poetic collection, . In recognition of her work, the Government of Pakistan awarded her the Medal of Excellence in 1981. She received the Baba-e Urdu, Dr. Maulvi Abdul Haq Award from the

Pakistan Academy of Letters The Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) ( ur, ) is a national academy with its main focus on Pakistani literature and related fields. It is the largest and the most prestigious learned society of its kind in Pakistan, with activities throughout th ...

in 1994, and the Quaid-e Azam Literary Award in 1997. She was also the recipient of the 's Certificate of Merit. She was the recipient of various international awards from literary societies in North America and Europe. The

conferred upon her the

Pride of Performance The Pride of Performance ( ur, ), officially known as Presidential Pride of Performance, is an award bestowed by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to recognize people with "notable achievements in the field of art, science, literature, sports, an ...

Award for Literature in 2003 (awards were announced on 14 August 2002). She was the recipient of the Kamal-e Fan Award for lifetime achievement in literature by the Pakistan Academy of Letters in 2003. She was the first woman recipient of the award since the literary prize was established by the

(PAL) in 1997.

Feminist views

Ada Jafarey was a supporter of

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

. She expressed her views thus:

Critical reputation

Various critics say that Jafarey's poetry is full of politeness of expression. She combines both old and new thoughts in a unique artistic way through her poetry. Qazi Abdul Ghaffar, in his introduction to Ada Jafarey's collection of verses, particularly mentioned her name in the field of feminist way of expression. The Urdu poet and critic, Jazib Qureshi, said:
''"Ada Jafarey is the first and only lady poet who carries in her poetry the eternal colours of

Ghalib ) , birth_date = , birth_place = Kala Mahal, Agra, Maratha Confederacy , death_date = , death_place = Gali Qasim Jaan, Ballimaran, Chandni Chowk, Delhi, British India , occupation = Poet , language ...

, Iqbal, and

Jigar ''Jigar'' is a 1992 Indian Hindi-language martial arts film directed by Farogh Siddique. It was released during the Diwali weekend and proved to be a successful hit. The plot is inspired by the 1989 American film '' Kickboxer''. Plot Raju an ...

.''"

Notes

External links

— Download Ada Jafri's autobiography (in Urdu)

Citations

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jafri, Ada 1924 births 2015 deaths Pakistani women poets Muhajir people Urdu-language poets from Pakistan Muslim poets Pakistani Muslims People from Karachi Pakistani feminist writers Recipients of the Pride of Performance Recipients of Tamgha-e-Imtiaz 20th-century Pakistani poets 20th-century women writers 20th-century Pakistani women writers Recipients of the Adamjee Literary Award People from Budaun