ISLAMABAD: Kishwer Nahid’s poetry is a powerful voice of resistance against exploitation, social injustices and a symbol of hope. Her latest book is not only an anthology of her own life, but the elegy of the oppressed segments of the Pakistani society.

This was stated by speakers at the launching ceremony of Kishwer Naheed’s new collection of poetry book Taar Taar Perhan at the National Press Club on Saturday.

Organised by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists in collaboration with National Press Club, the event was attended by luminaries of the Pakistani literature, including Iftikhar Arif, Asghar Nadeem Syed, Mohammad Izharul Haq, former senator and human rights defender Farhatullah Babar, poet Harris Khalique, Asma Sheerazi, Munizey Jehangir, writer and award-winning translator Raza Naeem and PFUJ President Afzal Butt.

Iftikhar Arif described Kishwer’s poetry as an authentic history of and the continuity of the resistance movements of literature that started in 1935 in pre-partition India.

She is the pioneer in prose poetry who introduced the genre in Pakistan. The future of Urdu poetry is in prose poetry, he said.

“I am honoured that Kishwer has written a poem on my personality”, he concluded.

Farhatullah Babar said Kishwar’s poetry gives courage and hope especially in a situation when voices of resistance in poetry and media a have weakened and on the retreat.

“Whenever there is a silence in society, people stop thinking and dialogue process leading to chaos and extremism,” he said. To understand Kishwer’s personality in totality one has to keep in mind her essays and columns. She always advocates reconciliation and harmony in society and between neighbouring countries.

The title of the book depicts the ideals, thinking of the poet. The most important poem in the book, the senator said, is about transgenders’ agonies. It’s a coincident that the poem has come at a time when the Federal Shariat Court declared anti-Islam a bill passed by the parliament on the rights and protection of the oppressed and exploited community, Mr Babar said.

She is also champion of the rights of women and missing persons. She has retrieved the identity of disappeared women, he said.

Asghar Nadeem Syed said “Kishwer’s poetry spans over six decades and depicts the political and moral crises of our society where the powerful elite class have trampled the rights of the people, conquered their own people and muffled their voices under the garb of patriotism, religion and ideology of Pakistan.

Columnist and poet Izharul Haq recalled his fond memories with the poet of her student life and days when he worked under Kishwer’s editorship in Mah-i-Nau literary magazine. He described Kishwer as the pioneer of feminism in Pakistan and likened her to Iranian feminist poets Farough Farukhzad, Quratul Ain and the 12th century feminist poet Mahasta Ganjini. He drew similarities between the poetry of the two and said Pakistani society is passing through the same situation where women are killed in the name of Karo-Kari, honour crime and deprived of inheritance even in 21st century.

Kishwer is consistently writing poetry on these issues and in her latest book she has written poems about the gruesome murder of Qandeel Baloch, Noor Muqadam and Taliban’s atrocities on women.

Harris Khalique narrated the contemporary important events and the social injustices. Although globalisation has unified the capital, it has divided working class movements and society. But Kishwer’s poetry reconnects the broken links and movements of workers, students, writers.

Raza Naeem who came from Lahore read the translation of Kishwer’s poem.

The book contains 50 prose poems, 10 ghazals and one long poem on the transgender community’s agonies. Dr Humaira Ashfaque moderated the event.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2023