Pakistan: A new voice in poetry by women

Talat Farooq’s work reflects women empowerment issues, said Kishwar Nahid who said that the 21st century was without doubt the women’s century.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Staff | Good reads
Source & Credit:Dawn.Com | March 12, 2010
Dawn reporter | Islamabad

ISLAMABAD, March 11: The launching of Talat Farooq’s second book of poetry coincided with the International Women’s Day giving substance and meaning to the occasion as her verse reflects the trials and tribulations of a woman’s life in the contemporary society of Pakistan.

The launching of her book Shehrazad was organised by the National Language Authority (NLA), a literary organisation on Thursday.^[*]

Talat Farooq finds inspiration in the Arabian Nights’ character of Schehrezade, the storyteller whose endless stories save her life from the dreaded beheading that awaits her when her nightly tales come to an end.

Talat thinks the Pakistani women are in a similar situation. A sword hangs over their head all the time as they can be accused of any crime and punished for that. But, this fear has steeled their nerves and given them the spirit to fight.


Reading from her poem Lebanon ke Ansoo, composed in 2006, Talat Farooq said the location was different but the guns and the wounds and death were the same as depicted in her poem Aaj ki Raat mujhe ro lene dey.

Her collection was reviewed by NLA Chairman Iftikhar Arif, IIU Rector Prof Fateh Mohammad Malik, intellectual Ashfaq Saleem Mirza, activist and poet Kishwar Nahid, Abida Taqi, Ghazanfar Hashmi, and Mahbub Zafar, who found enchanting images, and sparkling word arrangements in her verse.

Talat Farooq’s work reflects women empowerment issues, said Kishwar Nahid who said that the 21st century was without doubt the women’s century.

Prof Malik said it would be difficult to say with certainty if women faced greater difficulties than men, yet Talat’s poetry is a cry against social injustices of all kinds.

The NLA chairman said that Talat’s diction in the second collection Shehrazad was different than her first book Titli ke rang haza'ar.^[*] She is a better poet, more attuned to the nuances of classical poetry and has philosophical and Sufi content.Ashfaq Saleem Mirza wondered how she could have crammed all nagging social issues of Pakistan in one little volume. But, she had written good poetry sprinkled with issues of the mind and the spirit.

Read original article here: A new voice in poetry by women

[*] Editors note: Minor corrections pertaining to the titles of  Mrs. Talat Farooq's two collections were made to remove the confirmed typographical errors in the second and the last paragraphs of the Dawn's original article. Please read the original article for comparisons.