Fahmida Riaz - As An Activist

As An Activist

Fahmida took part in social and political activities during her academic life. She got involved in student politics when she was student of M.A. in Sindh University. She spoke and wrote against the University Ordinance and the ban on the students' union during the Ayub Khan regime.

She spent many years in exile in India in the 1980s during the dictatorship of General Zia ul Haq, living in Delhi and teaching at Jamia Millia Islamia. She enjoyed the patronage of the Indian Government. Her husband, an activist of Sindhi nationalism, had also accompanied her to India. They returned to Pakistan quite disillusioned. Fahmida expressed the reasons for her disillusionment with the rise of Hindu nationalism in India in the following poem:

Naya Bharat (New India)

"Tum bilkul hum jaisey nikley Aab tak Kahan chupay thay bhai Voh moorkhta, voh ghaamarpan jis mai hum nay sadian gawaeen Aakhir pahunchi dua tumhaari Aray badhai bahut badhai

You turned out to be just like us; Similarly stupid, wallowing in the past, You’ve reached the same doorstep at last. Congratulations, many congratulations.

Preyt dharm ka naach rahaa hai Qaim Hindu raj karo gay Saarey ultey kaj karogay apna chaman taraj karogay Tum bhee baithey karogey sochaa Kaun hai Hindu, kaun naheen hai Tum Bhi Karo gay Fatway Jari

Ek jaap saa kartey jao Barham Bar Yehi Dorhao Kitna veer mahaan tha Bharat Kaisa Alishaan tha Bharat"

Your demon religion dances like a clown, Whatever you do will be upside down. You too will sit deep in thought and ponder, Who is Hindu, who is not. You too will issue Fatwas Keep repeating the mantra like a parrot, India was like the land of the brave"

(translated by Khushwant Singh)

Her work is remarkable for its emotionally charged references to social and political injustice. She has been a prominent voice in the feminist struggle in Pakistan, where her poems both directly and insidiously erode at the foundations of male dominance. She has also published several gender equal stories, feminist translations, and some deconstruction of the criticism of feminist work.