Feminist poet and short story writer, Fahmida Riaz, was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Yorkshire Adabee Forum at the Urdu Conference. Ghazal Ansari of the Yorkshire Adabee Forum introduced the literary society she was representing and spoke about their decision to recognise Raiz’s contributions to Urdu literature. Raza Ali Abidi, who is the patron-in-chief of the society, discussed the work the forum has been doing in recent years. Asif Farrukhi and Khurshid Rizvi discussed Riaz’s work, particularly her poetry.

Farrukhi recalled his first exposure to Riaz’s poetry, saying he was stunned that poetry could be written in this manner as well. He reminded the audience that Riaz is not just a poet but a great prose writer as well while Rizvi pointed out that she is also a translator and has recently been working on the Urdu translations of Persian classics, which “shows her constant quest.”

He also said that in the “controversy” sometimes generated by Riaz’s bold subject matter, “her creativity, literary ability and courage” gets overlooked. He read from her poetry to illustrate his argument.

Speaking about her long literary journey in what was a poignant and painful address, Riaz said that she has been maligned and targeted over the years, sometimes laughing at the attacks, at other times crying. At times called a KGB, RAW or ISI agent, at other times she was labelled sexually promiscuous because, ironically, she spoke about subjects which had already been addressed in Urdu literature: “Our literary heritage is not dry or sanitised,” she pointed out. “There had never been a restriction on any topic in literature and hence I did not feel the need to restrict myself.”

Riaz said that her contribution is being vocal about what she was seeing around her, something she would like others to do as well. Sounding hopeful, she said that what used to be only talked about behind closed doors is being discussed openly now. Sadly, the programme was running behind schedule and Riaz’s talk had to be cut short (as was the case with many speakers over the four days).