Family and Work
Riaz was persuaded by her family to enter into an arranged marriage after graduation from college, and spent a few years in the UK with her first husband before returning to Pakistan after a divorce. During this time she worked with the BBC Urdu service (Radio) and got a degree in film making. She has one daughter from this marriage.
She worked in an advertising agency in Karachi before starting her own Urdu publication Awaz. She met and married Zafar Ali Ujan, a leftist political worker and had two children with him. The liberal and politically charged content of Awaz drew the attention of the Zia regime and both Fahmida and Zafar were charged with multiple cases—the magazine shut down and Zafar was thrown in jail. Fahmida was bailed out by a fan of her works before she could be taken to jail and fled to India with her two small children and sister on the excuse of a Mushaira invitation. She had relatives in India and her husband later joined her there after his release from jail. The family spent almost seven years in exile before returning to Pakistan on the eve of Benazir Bhutto's wedding reception. During this time Fahmida had been poet in residence for a university in Dehli.
She was appointed MD of the National Book Foundation during Benazir Bhutto's first tenure and was later persecuted by the first Nawaz Sharif government, labelled an Indian agent and made virtually unemployable because of this threat. She worked three simultaneous jobs to support the needs of her growing children at this time. In the second tenure of Benazir's government, she was given a post at the Quaed e Azam Academy. When Benazir's government toppled a second time, Fahmida was again persona non grata for Islamabad.
Fahmida lost her son Kabeer in October 2007. He drowned while swimming with friends on a picnic. This was soon after Fahmida had translated fifty of Rumi's poems from Persian into Urdu, dedicated to Shams Tabriz. She was MD on the Urdu Dictionary Board from 2000-2011.
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