Story wins award

Maham Javaid’s story “The Tallest Woman” has won the Zeenat Haroon Rashid (ZHR) writing prize. Her intriguing story about a girl, who just keeps growing taller and taller, was chosen from nearly 500 entries.

Maham Javaid is a writer and journalist from Karachi who has worked with The News on Sunday. She is currently the 2019-20 Finberg Fellow at Human Rights Watch in New York City. “This is a powerful new voice, and a way of writing about inequality and injustice that is rare in it hilarity,” says the ZHR Writing Prize jury. Asked how she came up with the idea to write on this tall girl, Maham said, “Women are born strong and powerful; they have skills, talents and bodies that are unique and wonderful. But society doesn’t allow them to feel powerful, in fact the patriarchy takes away this power, slowly, bit by bit. I wanted my protagonist to represent such women, who are born strong and unique but are made to feel powerless.”

A writing competition for women with a Rs100,000 cash prize named in honour of Zeenat Haroon Rashid, is held every year.