Hajra Masroor

Hajra Masroor  born January 17, 1930, in Lucknow, died September 15, 2012 was a Pakistani feminist writer.She has written several books of short stories in which she has raised the social, political, legal, and economic rights for women equal to those of men. She has also received several awards including Pride of Performance Award for best writer in 1995 and Aalmi Frogh-e-Urdu Adab Award.

Hajra was born on January 17, 1930 in Lucknow, India to Dr.Zahoor Ahmad Khan who was British Army Doctor, and sudden died after a heart attack.She had five sisters and a younger brother. Her family raised by her brave mother. She began writing from her childhood. After partition she and her sister migrated to Pakistan, and settled in Lahore.[5] An Urdu writer in his book wrote that no one knew Hajra was engaged with famous Urdu poet Sahir Ludhianvi but once in a literary gathering Ludhianvi pronounced a word wrongly, Hajra criticised him, he got angry and engagement was broken. Later, she married Ahmad Ali Khan, who was the editor of daily Dawn. She has two daughters. She was younger sister of Khadija Mastoor, a great writer in the history of Urdu literature. She died on 15 September 2012 in Karachi, Pakistan.

Hajra began writing short stories from her early age, her stories published in the literary magazines and received highly appreciation from Urdu circles. She edited literary magazine Naqoosh with Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi. Qasmi was also a friend of her and her sister. She was attacked from the aggressive and domineering groups when she found herself controversies in the Muslim sociaty. She has shown here appearance in the history of Urdu literature and Urdu fiction with bold imagination and writing of short stories as a non-traditional way.Her writings have been appreciated as;

"It was a complete withdrawal from writing as well as from the literary scene. Now she shunned participation in literary functions and felt no temptation to pen any kind of writing. After playing her role well she was now content to lead a quiet life as the wife of the former Dawn editor, the late Mr Ahmad Ali Khan. Of course, this kind of seclusion, so rare in the literary world, should be seen as the outcome of a perfect self-contentment on the part of the writer.

Now after keeping away for long, say about four decades, Hajra Masroor found herself compelled, perhaps under some personal pressure, to come to Lahore and make an appearance before a literary audience. The first function was held at Government College for paying tribute to Qurratulain Hyder, whose sad demise has been deeply felt and mourned in the literary world of India, Pakistan and beyond.

Awards

Pride of Performance Awards for best writer in 1995

Nigar awards for best script writer.

Aalmi Frogh-e-Urdu Adab Award from Aalmi Frogh-e-Urdu Adab Organization.

Bibliography

Short stories

Chand Ke Doosri Tarafچاند کی دوسری طرف

Tisri Manzil تیسری منزل

Andhere Ujaleاند ھیرے اُجالے

Chori Chupe وری چُھپے

Ha-ai Allah ہائے اللہ

Charke چرکے

Woe Log وہ لوگ

Source : Wikipedia

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