Parveen Shakir Urdu Poetry

Parveen Shakir was a famous Pakistani poet who was born on 24 November 1952 in Karachi, Pakistan. He was a famous Urdu poet and one of the first female poetess who openly used the term lover and openly expressed the romantic feelings which was not that common in her era. She gave a new feminine touch to the Urdu literature and was not shy of expressing emotional and psychological issues of women.
Parveen Shakir started writing poetry from an early age and was inspired by her father Shakir Hussain Saqib who was also a poet. She received her early education in Karachi and got degrees in Linguistics and English literature and did her masters from Karachi university. She also passed Pakistan Civil Service Examination and severed as secretary central board of revenue and also as deputy collector in Islamabad. In 1976 she married her cousin Naseer Ali who was doctor in military. She had a son Murad Ali but their marriage didn’t last long and they got divorced.

There were mainly two styles of her Urdu poetry, one was ghazal and the other was free verse (“Azad Nazam”). Her ghazals are what made her extremely popular in both India and Pakistan. Her poetry was from feminine perspective which were somewhat fresh expression from a female at that time. Her romantic poetry revolves around loneliness, sadness, distrust and separation. Using her free verses, she highlighted the social issues which were faced by women like discrimination, gender inequality and the problems which women faces in a male dominant society. She broke the traditional norms and openly expressed women’s feeling both about love and society’s discrimination against women.
She started writing from an early age and her 6 poetry books are published. Her first collection “Khushbu” was published in 1976, 2nd book “Sad-barg” was published in 1980, “Khud-Kalaami” and “Inkaar” were published in 1990 and “Maah-e-Tmam” was published in 1994. Her last poetry collection was published after her death and is named “Kaf-e-Aaina”.

She has received many awards. Her first collection “Khushbuu” which was published at the age of 25 was awarded Adamjee Literary award. She has also received Pride of Performance award in 1990. A commemorative postage stamp was also issued by Pakistan post office on her 19th death anniversary.
Parveen Shakir died in a car accident on 26 December, 1994 in Islamabad. The road on which the accident took place is now named after her.