Kishwar Naheed () (born 18 June 1940)In official documents her date of birth is recorded as 3 February 1940 which is not correct. is a feminist Urdu poet and writer from Pakistan. She has written several poetry books. She has also received awards including Sitara-e-Imtiaz for her literary contribution to Urdu literature.
Early life Kishwar Naheed was born in 1940 to a Syed family in Bulandshahr, British India. After the partition, she migrated to Lahore, Pakistan with her family in 1949. Kishwar was a witness to the violence (including rape and abduction of women) associated with the partition of India. The bloodshed at that time left a lasting impression on her at a tender age. As a young girl, Kishwar was inspired by the girls who had started going to Aligarh Muslim University in those times. The white kurta and white gharara under a black burqa that they wore looked so elegant to her and she wanted to go to college, to educate herself.
She finished Adeeb Fazil degree in Urdu and also learned the Persian language. She had become a voracious reader in her teenage years and read everything that she chanced upon — ranging from the works of Dostoyevsky to the English dictionary published by Neval Kishore Press.
She struggled and fought to receive an education, when women were not allowed to go to school. She studied at home and received a high school diploma through correspondence courses. After matriculation, there was a lot of family resistance to her taking admission in college but her brother, Syed Iftikhar Zaidi, paid for her tuition and helped her continue her formal education. In Pakistan, she went on to obtain a Bachelor of Arts in 1958 and a Master's in Economics in 1960 from Punjab University, Lahore. Kishwar married her friend, poet Yousuf Kamran in 1960 and the couple have two sons. After her husband's death in 1984, she worked to raise her children and support the family.
Career Kishwar Naheed has published 12 volumes of her poetry in both Pakistan and India. Her Urdu poetry has also been published in foreign languages all over the world. Her famous poem 'We Sinful Women' (), affectionately referred to as the women's anthem among Pakistani feminists, gave its title to a groundbreaking anthology of contemporary Urdu feminist poetry, translated and edited by Rukhsana Ahmad and published in London by The Women's Press in 1991.
Kishwar Naheed has also written eight books for children and won the prestigious UNESCO award for children's literature. Her love for children is as much as her concern for women. She expresses this concern in her poem, Asin Burian We Loko, which is a touching focus on the plight of women in the present male-dominated society. Naheed has served in major positions in various national institutions. She was Director General of Pakistan National Council of the Arts before her retirement. She also edited a prestigious literary magazine Mahe Naw and founded an organisation Hawwa (Eve) whose goal is to help women without an independent income become financially independent through cottage industries and selling handicrafts.
Politics and feminism Kishwar Naheed has been witness to the struggles and aspirations that Pakistan has gone through as a nation. Her written work, spanning more than four decades, chronicles her experiences as a woman writer engaged in the creative and civic arenas, even as she has dealt with personal, social, and official backlashes.
Months after the Partition of India – a little before her family moved to Lahore from Bulandshahr – Kishwar saw something which left a lasting impression on her mind and her heart. The pain and sadness she felt in those moments have stayed with her. Some Muslim girls who belonged to Bulandshahr were kidnapped during the Partition riots. Either they succeeded in running away from their captors or were rescued, they arrived back in Bulandshahr. Some were known to her family and she accompanied her mother and sisters to go see them. They looked haggard, exhausted and broken. Surrounded by other women who were trying to console them, they were all lying down on the floor or reclining against the walls in a large room. The feet of these women were badly bruised and soaked in blood. That was the moment when Kishwar Naheed says she stopped being just a child and became a girl child. She became a woman. She still remembers those blood-soaked feet and says "Women and girls anywhere have their feet soaked in blood. Very little has changed over the decades. This must end".
Influenced by the Progressive Writers' Movement in South Asia and the ideals of socialism, Kishwar Naheed witnessed major international political upheavals; Pakistan was under martial law and new ideas and forms were being introduced and appreciated in Urdu literature. Kishwar and her friends got involved in everything. One day they would take a procession out in support of Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Egyptian right over the Suez Canal, the next day they would bring out a rally for Vietnam or Palestine or Latin America.
In an interview to the Pakistani monthly magazine, The Herald (Pakistan), Kishwar Naheed commenting on censorship says:
"we must not forget that creative writers and artists do not live in isolation. It is natural to react to and comment on the political and social circumstances in which one lives. On one hand, it is said that creative people are more sensitive and concerned while, on the other hand, it is argued that they must confine themselves to writing about themselves or their inner feelings. It is fine that we should write about our inner feelings but when Malala [Yousafzai] was shot or girl schools in Swat were being razed to the ground, it was my inner feeling that I wrote about. My poems will now be seen as a critical social comment and some may call these political poems but these poems represent my inner feelings......Creativity cannot be regulated nor should it be. Who would know this better than a woman writer or artist who has to struggle all her life to be able to express what she feels and thinks, to be able to articulate the way she wishes to articulate, to be able to present to the world what she wishes to present in her own unique way."
"This freedom to write and express has come through a struggle drenched in tears".
Kishwar Naheed also champions the cause of peace in South Asia and has played a significant role in promoting Pakistan India People's Forum and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Writers Forum. She has participated in global literary and cultural movements bringing together writers and artists who believe in a fair and equitable global political order. Her powerful poems against extremist religious thought, violence, terrorism and increased suffering of women and girls due to radicalization have created waves locally and internationally.
Literary works Kishwar Naheed is widely acclaimed for her sharp and incisive poetic expression, for being bold and direct, and, for celebrating the universal human struggle for equality, justice and freedom. She also writes a regular weekly newspaper column in Daily Jang. Commentators and critics have noticed that, with time, her voice has grown "louder, more insistent and somehow more intimate".
Her first poetry collection was Lab-e Goya, published in 1968, that won the Adamjee Literary Award.
+Books (selected works)YearTitlePublisherNotes1968Lab-i goyāLahore: Maktabah-yi KarvanThe first collection of poetry Won the Adamjee Literary Award2006Warq Warq Aaina Sang-e-Meel Publications2016Aabad KharabaAfzal AhmadBuri Aurat Ki KhataAutobiography2012Chand Ki BetiMaktaba Payam-e-Taleem, New Delhi2001Dasht-e-Qais Men Laila - KulliyatSang-e-Meel Publications, Lahore2010Aurat Mard Ka RishtaSang-e-Meel Publications1978Galiyan Dhoop Darwaze (Lanes, Sunshine, Doors)Mohammad Jameelunnabi2012Jadu Ki HandiyanMaktaba Payam-e-Taleem, New Delhi1996Khawateen Afsana NigarNiyaz Ahmad2011Raat Ke MusafirDirector Qaumi Council Bara-e- Farogh-e-Urdu Zaban New Delhi2012Sher Aur BakriMaktaba Payam-e-Taleem, New Delhi2001The Distance of a ShoutOxford University PressUrdu poems with English translations +Translated in other languages (selected works)YearTitleTranslatorTranslation ofTranslated intoPublisher2010A Bad Woman's StoryDurdana SoomroBuri Aurat Ki KathaEnglishOxford University Press, USA-We Sinful WomenHum Gunehgar AurteinMany Languages-Lips that Speak Lab-i-goyaEnglish-Leaves of ReflectionsWarq Warq AainaEnglish +Translations (selected works)TitleTranslation ofTranslated intoPublisher1982Aurat Ek Nafsiyati MutalaThe Second Sex by Simone de BeauvoirUrduDeen Gard Publications Limited +Magazine (selected works)YearTitleEditorPublisherVolume2012Chahar-SooGulzar JavedFaizul Islam Printing Press, Rawalpindi021 + Selected ghazalsTitleNotesai rah-e-hijr-e-nau-faroz dekh ki hum thahar gaeGhazalapne lahu se nam likha ghair ka bhi dekhGhazalbigdi baat banana mushkil badi baat banae kaunGhazalbimar hain to ab dam-e-isa kahan se aaeGhazaldil ko bhi gham ka saliqa na tha pahle pahleGhazaldukh ki gutthi kholengeGhazalek hi aawaz par wapas palat aaenge logGhazalgirya, mayusi, gham-e-tark-e-wafa kuchh na rahaGhazalhar naqsh-e-pa ko manzil-e-jaan manna padaGhazalhasrat hai tujhe samne baithe kabhi dekhunGhazalhausla shart-e-wafa kya karnaGhazalhawa kuchh apne sawal tahrir dekhti haiGhazalhum ki maghlub-e-guman the pahleGhazalishq ki gum-shuda manzilon mein gaiGhazaljab main na hun to shahr mein mujh sa koi to hoGhazalkabhi to aa meri aankhon ki raushni ban karGhazalkahaniyan bhi gain qissa-khwaniyan bhi gainGhazalkhayal-e-tark-e-talluq ko talte rahiyeGhazalkhushbu ko rangton pe ubharta hua bhi dekhGhazalkuchh bol guftugu ka saliqa na bhul jaeGhazalkuchh din to malal us ka haq thaGhazalkuchh itne yaad mazi ke fasane hum ko aae hainGhazalmeri aankhon mein dariya jhulta haiGhazalmujhe bhula ke mujhe yaad bhi rakha tu neGhazalna koi rabt ba-juz khamushi o nafrat keGhazalnazar to aa kabhi aankhon ki raushni ban karGhazalpahan ke pairhan-e-gul saba nikalti haiGhazalsambhal hi lenge musalsal tabah hon to sahiGhazalsulagti ret pe aankhen bhi zer-e-pa rakhnaGhazalsurkhi badan mein rang-e-wafa ki thi kuchh dinonGhazaltalash dariya ki thi ba-zahir sarab dekhaGhazaltere qarib pahunchne ke dhang aate theGhazaltishnagi achchhi nahin rakhna bahutGhazaltujhse wada aziz-tar rakkhaGhazaltumhaari yaad mein hum jashn-e-gham manaen bhiGhazalumr mein us se badi thi lekin pahle tut ke bikhri mainGhazalwida karta hai dil satwat-e-rag-e-jaan koGhazalye hausla tujhe mahtab-e-jaan hua kaiseGhazalzehn rahta hai badan khwab ke dam tak us kaGhazal +Selected poemsTitleNotesaaKHiri faislaaaKHiri KHwahishek nazm ijazaton ke liyeghas to mujh jaisi haiglass landscapehum gunahgar aurtenPakistan's Feminist AnthemkaDe koskashid shabKHudaon se kah donafiqaid mein raqssone se pahle ek KHayal +Selected children's poetryTitlePublisherNotesaankh-micholibatakh aur sanpchidiya aur koyalDais Dais Ki KahanianFerozsons Pvt LtdUNESCO Prize for Children's Literaturegadhe ne bajai bansurikutte aur khargosh
Awards and recognition YearTitleByFor1968Adamjee Literary Awardher first collection Lab-e-goya (1968)UNESCO Prize for Children's LiteratureDais Dais Ki KahanianBest Translation awardColumbia University1997Mandela Prize2000Sitara-e-Imtiaz (Star of Excellence) AwardOne of the highest honours bestowed by the President of Pakistanher literary services to Pakistan2015Kamal-e-Fun Award (Lifetime Achievement Award) in LiteratureKishwar Naheed nominated for top literary award The Express Tribune (newspaper), Published 14 December 2016, Retrieved 2 June 2019Pakistan Academy of Lettersher life-long services to literature2016Premchand FellowshipSahitya Akademi of Indiaher contribution to SAARC literature
See also List of Pakistani poets List of Urdu language poets List of feminist poets
References
Further reading Jane Eldridge Miller, ed., Who's Who in Contemporary Women's Writing. 2001.