KARACHI: A collection of ghazals and nazms by eminent poet Kishwar Naheed titled Taar Taar Pairahan was launched at the Arts Council of Pakistan on Thursday evening.

Poet Zehra Nigah presided over the event, which was moderated by Mehnaz Rahman.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Inaam Nadeem said in the past, two streams of poetic endeavours were in vogue. The first was to do with intellectual and philosophical content and the second harboured the idea that poetry shouldn’t be affected by external influences.

People often say that Urdu poetry is not commensurate with contemporary times, and to extract meaning out of modern poetry poets tend to get abstract or narcissistic. Naheed depicts the issues of life in her poems in many ways. Things have changed over the years as have the ways to resist. Naheed uses multiple symbols in her poetry and in order to appreciate her prose poems one must try and understand Naheed’s style (aslub), he said.

Speakers praise her fight for cause of women

“I feel she has written one poem all her life, and its title is life. To her, life and poetry are synonymous,” he added.

Dr Tanveer Anjum said the feminist movement came from the west. The 1970s was the era of the second wave of feminism and now it’s the fourth wave. Naheed’s poetic journey has moved alongside the journey of feminism. The book being launched is a proof of it. One of the important subjects touched upon in the poems included in Taar Taar Pairahan is the sadness associated with the passage of time.

Dr Jaffer Ahmed said as always Naheed’s new book smells of freshness. She has gone ahead in each stage of her life. Now that she’s 80 years old, she won’t be recognised by her age but by the resoluteness (azm) with which she has written all these years. Her seniors (Faiz, Sibte Hasan etc) used to call her Kishwar as did her contemporaries; the later generation calls her aapa (elder sister), which has a sense of ownership.

Reading the book gives away the jamal (aesthetics) and jalal (loftiness or majesty) that her poems contain. Her poetry is about the woman’s quest of the self (aurat ki khud ki talash ka safar). She has fought women’s cause with great force. She has written so much about feminism that it could be made the course for two semesters at an educational institution, he said.

Writer Noor Ul Huda Shah said reading the book reminded her of the fact that in a society where speaking one’s mind has little room and the difference between a lie and the truth diminished, it’s poets and writers who keep a society alive.

In her address, Kishwar Naheed thanked the guests for coming and the speakers for reading her book with great concentration.

She said the purpose for which she has penned the book has been fulfilled.

She also recited a couple of poems from the book.

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2023