islamist undertone in her work. The themes prevalent in her verse were, until then, considered taboo for women writers.
She also translated the works of
Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai
Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai ( sd, شاھ عبداللطيف ڀٽائي, ur, ; 1689/1690 – 21 December 1752), commonly known by the honorifics ''Lakhino Latif'', ''Latif Ghot'', ''Bhittai'', and ''Bhit Jo Shah'', was a Sindhi Sufi mystic, an ...
and
Shaikh Ayaz
Shaikh Ayaz SI ( ur, , ) born Mubarak Ali Shaikh ( ur, , ) (March 1923 – 28 December 1997) was Sindhi language poet, prose writer and former Vice Chancellor of University of Sindh. He is counted as one of the prominent and great Sindhi po ...
from Sindhi to Urdu. Fleeing General
Zia-ul Haq
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq HI, GCSJ, ร.ม.ภ, (Urdu: ; 12 August 1924 – 17 August 1988) was a Pakistani four-star general and politician who became the sixth President of Pakistan following a coup and declaration of martial law in ...
's religious tyranny, Riaz sought refuge in
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 ...
and spent seven years there.
The poems from her collection ''Apna Jurm Sabit Hae'' reflect her homeland's experience under the dictatorship of
General Zia-ul-Haq
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq HI, GCSJ, ร.ม.ภ, (Urdu: ; 12 August 1924 – 17 August 1988) was a Pakistani four-star general and politician who became the sixth President of Pakistan following a coup and declaration of martial law i ...
. By reputation, Riaz stands alongside
Nazim Hikmet
Subahdar, also known as Nazim or in English as a "Subah", was one of the designations of a governor of a Subah (province) during the Khalji dynasty of Bengal, Mamluk dynasty (Delhi), Khalji dynasty, Tughlaq dynasty, Mughal era ( of India who w ...
,
Pablo Neruda
Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; ), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nerud ...
,
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and litera ...
and
Simone de Beauvoir
Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir (, ; ; 9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, and even th ...
.
Personal life
Fahmida Riaz was born on 28 July 1946 to a literary family from
Meerut
Meerut (, IAST: ''Meraṭh'') is a city in Meerut district of the western part of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city lies northeast of the national capital New Delhi, within the National Capital Region and west of the state capital ...
, British India. Her father, Riaz-ud-Din Ahmed, was a educationist involved in mapping and developing the modern education system for the province of Sindh. Her family settled in the city of Hyderabad after her father’s transfer to Sindh.
Her father died when she was four and so she was raised by her mother.
She learned about Urdu and Sindhi literature in her childhood, and after that learnt the Persian language. After completing her education, she began working as a newscaster for Radio Pakistan.
After her graduation from college, Riaz was persuaded by her family to enter into an arranged marriage. She spent some years in the United Kingdom with her first husband, during which she worked with the BBC Urdu service (Radio), earned a degree in film making, and had a daughter. When they were divorced, she returned to Pakistan. She had two children from her second marriage with Zafar Ali Ujan, a leftist political worker.
Activism in Pakistan
Riaz worked in an advertising agency in the city of Karachi before beginning her own Urdu publication, ''Awaz''. Its liberal and politically charged content attracted attention in Zia era. Riaz and her husband Zafar were charged with various crimes, the magazine was shut down, and Zafar was imprisoned.
On the topic of censorship, Riaz said that "one should be totally sincere in one's art, and uncompromising. There is something sacred about art that cannot take violation. One should read extensively to polish expression. I read Platts' ''Urdu-Hindi to English Dictionary'' like a book of poems. I love words."
She asserted, "Feminism has so many interpretations. What it means for me is simply that women, like men, are complete human beings with limitless possibilities. They have to achieve social equality, much like the Dalits or the Black Americans. In the case of women, it is so much more complex. I mean, there is the right to walk on the road without being harassed. Or to be able to swim, or write a love poem, like a man without being considered immoral. The discrimination is very obvious and very subtle, very cruel and always inhuman."
Exile in India
Fahmida Riaz was faced with challenges due to her political ideology. More than 10 criminal charges were filed against her during General
Zia-ul-Haq
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq HI, GCSJ, ร.ม.ภ, (Urdu: ; 12 August 1924 – 17 August 1988) was a Pakistani four-star general and politician who became the sixth President of Pakistan following a coup and declaration of martial law in ...
’s dictatorship.
She was charged with sedition under Section 124A of the Pakistan Penal Code.
When she and her husband were arrested, she was bailed out by an admirer of her work before she could be taken to jail, and fled to India with her sister and two small children under the pretext of a Mushaira invitation. Her friend, the renowned poet
Amrita Pritam
Amrita Pritam (; 31 August 1919 – 31 October 2005) was an Indian novelist, essayist and poet, who wrote in Punjabi and Hindi. A prominent figure in Punjabi literature, she is the recipient of the 1956 Sahitya Akademi Award. Her body of wo ...
, spoke to prime minister Indira Gandhi on Riaz's behalf and gained her asylum there.
Fahmida Riaz had relatives in India. Her children went to school there,
and her husband joined them there after his release from jail. The family spent almost seven years in exile before returning to Pakistan after Zia-ul-Haq's death on the eve of
Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto ( ur, بینظیر بُھٹو; sd, بينظير ڀُٽو; Urdu ; 21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 11th and 13th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 t ...
's wedding reception. During this time, Riaz was poet-in-residence at
Jamia Millia Islamia
Jamia Millia Islamia () is a central university located in New Delhi, India. Originally established at Aligarh, United Provinces (present-day Uttar Pradesh, India) during the British Raj in 1920, it moved to its current location in Okhla in ...
university in
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
; it was there that she learnt to read Hindi.
She received a warm welcome on her return from exile.
On 8 March 2014, against the backdrop of rising concerns over intolerance in India, Riaz recited her poem Tum bilkul hum jaisey nikley''
' at a seminar called ‘''Hum Gunahgaar Auratein’''. The poem compares the rising Hindutva in India and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistan during Zia-ul-Haq's regime.
Death
Fahmida Riaz died on November 21, 2018 at the age 72.
Literary work
Poetry
Prose
Awards and recognition
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Riaz, Fahmida
1946 births
2018 deaths
People from Meerut
People from Hyderabad District, Pakistan
Muhajir people
Pakistani feminist writers
Jamia Millia Islamia faculty
Urdu-language poets from Pakistan
Pakistani scholars
Recipients of the Pride of Performance
Pakistani women poets
20th-century Pakistani poets
21st-century Pakistani poets
Pakistani translators
20th-century translators
21st-century translators
Poets from Karachi
20th-century Pakistani women writers
21st-century Pakistani women writers
Translators of Forough Farrokhzad
Pakistani prisoners and detainees