Fahmida Riaz

‘When I am dead... Do not beg the lords of the land to claim me at my death”. This is what progressive poet Fahmida Riaz wrote in her poem, ‘Taziyaati Qaraardadein’ (Condolence Resolutions). Fahmida Riaz left us on Wednesday night at the age of 72, and eulogies for her have kept coming. Born in Meerut in 1946, Riaz published her first volume of poetry, ‘Pathar ki Zubaan’ (The Language of Stone) in 1967. However, it was the publication of her second collection, ‘Badan Dareeda’, in 1973, that made the Urdu literary establishment quiver. Women were not supposed to write like Riaz. Her work was a critique of the roles that women were supposed to perform in order to gain male affection – and it set the tone for bolder work which forced her into exile to India during the notorious military dictatorship of General Ziaul Haq in the 1980s. Riaz had 10 cases registered against her for her editorship of the magazine, ‘Avaaz’. It was in this period that she wrote some of her most powerful poems, including ‘Chadar aur Chardiwari’.

Fahmida Riaz had established herself as a committed feminist who went on to live her life speaking out against patriarchy, religious orthodoxy and the political establishment in Pakistan. She must be remembered as she was: unafraid and relentless. During her exile, she wrote the epic poem, ‘Kya Tum Poora Chand Na Dekhoge?’ (Will you never see the full moon?). Riaz returned to Pakistan in 1988 at the cusp of the democratic transition and published her collection, ‘Apna Jurm to Sabit Hai’ (My Crime is Proven). Riaz would go on to publish more than 15 volumes of prose and poetry. She also translated a range of poets, from the revolutionary Pablo Neruda to Jallaluddin Rumi, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Sheikh Ayyaz and Naguib Mehfouz. When she was awarded the Kamal-e-Fan award by the Pakistani Academy of Awards earlier this year, Riaz said that awards had no meaning for her, but this one meant a lot to her because her case was supported by Sindhi and Baloch writers. She also won the Presidential Pride of Performance Award and Sitara-e-Imtiaz in 2010. Fahmida Riaz combined gentleness with extraordinary bravery and passion with tolerance. In her death, Pakistan has lost a key voice of resistance. It is now on us to remember her as she lived: a voice that never bowed down to the powerful.