Description
This book deals with the nature of political violence in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is partly based on the author�s experience of exile in alien lands and about the internal exile that she underwent in her own land when her political beliefs and sensibilities made her unacceptable for an authoritarian regime.
About the Author / Editor
Born in 1946 in Meerut, India, Fahmida Riaz is among the front rank of Urdu poets. From the outset she refused to be typecast as a woman poet and conform to what are generally regarded as the confines of �proper� literary and creative traditions of feminine poetry. In her choice of themes, diction, allusion, and similes she broke out of the inhibitions imposed on her gender. This was evident from the contents of her first collection of verse, Patthar Ki Zaban (published in 1967). With the publication of her second collection Badan Dareeda she emerged as a full-fledged iconoclast. The poem Badan Dareeda, which carried the same title as the collection, can be regarded as something of a landmark putting her in the same category as Ismat Chughtai who wrote the short story Lihaf, Fahmida Riaz used her femininity as a weapon to expose the prudishness of the male-oriented traditions of Urdu poetry. She has since published four more collections of her verse � Dhoop, Kya Tum Pura Chand Na Dekhogay, Hamrakab, and Aadmi Ki Zindigi. Fahmida Riaz is also the author of several short stories and novels in Urdu: Godavari, based on her experiences in India and Zinda Bahar Lane is based on her experiences in Bangladesh. Fahmida Riaz is also an unrelenting social critic and has been active in several human rights movements. She was among the writers who campaigned against General Ziaul Haq�s military rule and execution of Z.A. Bhutto, and had to suffer the wrath of the authorities and a period of self-exile. She has travelled widely and lectured at universities and cultural forums in England and the USA. She was given the Himmett-Hellman award by Human Rights Watch, New York in 1997. She is currently Director of the Urdu Dictionary Board, Pakistan. |
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