Poetry serves as a medium for one to not only express their individuality but also to vent out emotions that more than often go bottled up. Poetry being an art form with zero restrictions is often turned to in times of distress as a coping mechanism by many. There isn’t a greater witness to this than history itself.
Numerous Urdu poets who lived through the cruel eras of dictatorship wrote about it. Their poems not only encapsulate their emotions but were looked upon as an emblem of hope and reassurance that sooner or later the darkness would disperse giving way to light. Whilst other poets sought to bring awareness through their art at the expense of their freedom of speech or in some cases even their lives.
Modern-day Pakistan is nothing short of a disaster, the ongoing femicide along with its history of oppression does not exactly embody freedom. In times like these, it is important to reflect upon the work of those who resisted these extremist, male-dominated governments and stood up for their rights. One such poet was Fahmida Riaz, a feminist Urdu poet whose poetry was centered around feminism and human rights.
Fahmida’s work candidly explored topics that were considered taboo and against the time’s cultural values. Her refusal to bend her ideologies to societal norms, her disbelief in censorship, and her penning down topics such as female sexuality led to a plethora of criticism and hate thrown her way. Her poems such as “chadar aur chaar deewari” which was released after the ‘chadar’ was made compulsory for women were recited during protests for the restoration of democracy and her work posed a threat to Zia’s dictatorship had declared the nation’s honor to be inside women’s bodies.
Eventually, she was charged with treason which made her flee to India. The exile though did not break her spirits and she returned to Pakistan after Zia’s death and continued to incite controversies with her work. With Pakistan moving backward with the evergreen patriarchy eroding female autonomy, her work still sounds as rebellious as it did back in the day.
