Ada Jafarey ادؔا جعفری | |
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 Jafarey in 1987 (Karachi) | |
| Born | Aziz Jahan 22 August 1924 |
| Died | 12 March 2015 (aged 90) Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan |
| Resting place | PECHS Graveyard (Society Qabristan),Jamshed Town, Karachi24°52′0″N67°3′18″E / 24.86667°N 67.05500°E /24.86667; 67.05500 |
| Pen name | Ada Jafarey |
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| Nationality | British Indian(1924–1947) Pakistani(1947–2015) |
| Education | Primary education in poetry (Maria) |
| Period | 1945–2015 |
| Genre | Ghazal •free verse •haiku • short essay |
| Subject | Feminism among others |
| Literary movement | Modernism •post-modernism |
| Notable works | Maiṉ Sāz Ḍhūṉḍtī Rahī (1950) S̲h̲ahr-i Dard (1967) |
| Notable awards |
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| Spouse | |
| Children |
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| Website | |
| www | |
Ada Jafarey (Urdu:ادؔا جعفری :Adā Jaʿfrī)(PP,TI), often spelledAda Jafri[1] (22 August 1924 – 12 March 2015), was a Pakistani poet who is regarded as the first major femaleUrdu poet to be published[1][2][3][4] and has been called "The First Lady of Urdu Poetry". She was also an author[5] and was considered a prominent figure in contemporaryUrdu literature.[1][2][6] She received awards from theGovernment of Pakistan, the Pakistan Writers' Guild, and literary societies of North America and Europe in recognition of her efforts.[2]
Ada Jafarey was born on 22 August 1924, inBadayun,U.P. Herbirth name was Aziz Jahan.[a][1][2][7] Her father, Maulvi Badrul Hasan[b][8][9] died when she was three, and her mother reared her.[5] She started composing poetry when she was twelve[1][2][7][10] years old, under the pen name of Ada Badayuni. She spent her early life within impassable social bounds.[6][7]
She married Nurul Hasan Jafarey[c] on 29 January 1947, in Lucknow,India. After her marriage, she took her pen name Ada Jafarey. Her husband, Nurul Hasan, was a top-ranking civil servant of theFederal Government of India. Ada Jafarey also moved with her husband to Karachi after theindependence of Pakistan in 1947.[2] Her husband was a littérateur himself who wrote columns for both English and Urdu newspapers. He also served as the president of theAnjuman-i Taraqqi-i Urdu. Nurul Hasan, a major inspiration to her writing, died on 3 December 1995.[1]
She had been residing in Karachi, Pakistan.[1] She used to frequently travel between Karachi and Toronto, playing an active role in promoting Urdu.[2]
Ada Jafarey and Nurul Hasan Jafarey had three children, Sabiha, Azmi and Aamir.[11] Sabiha Jafarey is married to Zubair Iqbal and is settled inPotomac, Maryland, US. They have three children Sabah Iqbal, Yusuf Iqbal and Sameer Iqbal.[11] Azmi Jafarey and his wife Shua Jafarey are now settled inAndover, Massachusetts, US. They have two sons, Faaez Jafarey and Aazim Jafarey.[11] Ada Jafarey lived with her son, Aamir Jafarey, his wife, Maha Jafarey, together with their daughter Asra Jafarey in Karachi until her death.[11][12] Ada Jafarey has two great-grandchildren, Sabine Rana and Rizwan Rana, children of Sabah Iqbal Rana and her husband Fawad Rana.[11]
Ada Jafarey died in the evening of 12 March 2015 in a hospital in Karachi where she was being treated,[13] at the age of 90.[7][14][15][16][17][18] The Pakistani Minister for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage,Pervez Rashid, theGovernor of Sindh,Dr. Ishratul Ebad Khan, thePakistani Prime Minister,Mian Nawaz Sharif, Dr. Muhammad Qasim Bughio, ChairmanPAL, and Zahida Parveen, Director-General PAL, expressed sorrow over the death of Jafarey. They praised her work in the field of Urdu poetry and prayed for her soul.[19][20][21][22][23] Her funeral prayer was held in Al-Hilal Mosque, Karachi.[24] She was buried in the PECHS graveyard,Jamshed Town, Karachi on 13 March 2015.[25]
Ada Jafarey was part of a traditionally conservative society where women were not allowed to think and express independently.[2] But she was bold enough to express herself.[6] Despite having traditionality ingrained in her personality, she took part in modern art.[1] As early as 1950, she was recognized asthe First Lady of Urdu Poetry.[d][1][2][10][26] Her mother, and her husband Nurul Hasan Jafarey, encouraged her to keep on her literary activities in spite of social difficulties.[1][2] She was the student of great poets likeAkhtar Sheerani andJafar Ali Khan Asar Lakhnavi and used to get her poetry checked and corrected by them.[7][10]
Ada Jafarey writes in a gender-neutral mode,[27] though her works includefeminist themes like discrimination and dehumanisation of women and of them being viewed as sexual objects.[3][7] Her personality seems absent from her poetry.[1]
Ada Jafarey wrote of her experiences as a wife and mother in a modified traditional idiom, but also noticed the lack of fulfillment that accompanied these relationships.[3]
Ada Jafarey's works are mostlyGhazals,[5] but she also experimented withāzād naz̤m,[e][28] as well as UrduHaiku.[5] She had mastered both genres of Urdu poetry,naz̤m andghazal.[7] In her ghazals, she took thepen name,Adā.[f]She has also written a fewmaẓāmīn.[g][5]
Ada Jafarey's first ghazal was published inAkhtar Sheerani's magazine,Romān,[h] in 1945.[10] Ada Jafarey published her first collection of poems,"Maiṉ Sāz Ḍhūṉḍtī Rahī"[i] in 1950. Her book,G̲h̲azal Numā,[j] containing short essays with short biographies and brief commentaries on the work previous Urdu poets was published in 1987.[7] Besides, she published five collections ofUrdu poetry (S̲h̲ahr-i Dard,G̲h̲azālāṉ, Tum to Wāqif Ho!,Ḥarf-i S̲h̲anāsāʾī,Safar Bāqī, andMausam, Mausam),[k][15][26] in addition to her autobiography ("Jo Rahī so BeK̲h̲abrī Rahī"),[l] and forty research papers.[1][2] She also published her collection of UrduHaiku,Sāz-i Suk̲h̲n Bahānā hai[m][5][26] Herghazal,Hoṉṭoṉ pih kabhī un ke merā nām hī āʾe[n][26] was sung and popularised byUstad Amanat Ali Khan.[7][14][15] The firstcouplet of that ghazal is:[26]
ہونٹوں پہ کبھی ان کے، میرا نام ہی آئے | ؎ | ||
آئے تو سہی، برسرالزام ہی آئے |
Transliteration:
In 1955,Hamdard Foundation, New Delhi recognized her as the "Outstanding Female Poet of the Century".[2] Later, she was awarded theAdamjee Literary Award by the Pakistan Writers' Guild in 1967 for her second poetic collection,S̲h̲ahr-i Dard.[o][2][29] In recognition of her work, the Government of Pakistan awarded her theMedal of Excellence in 1981.[2] She received theBaba-e Urdu, Dr. Maulvi Abdul Haq Award from thePakistan Academy of Letters in 1994,[14] and theQuaid-e Azam Literary Award in 1997.[1] She was also the recipient of theHamdard Foundation of Pakistan's Certificate of Merit.[1] She was the recipient of various international awards from literary societies in North America and Europe.[2][30]
TheGovernment of Pakistan conferred upon her thePride of Performance Award for Literature in 2003 (awards were announced on 14 August 2002).[31][2] She was the recipient of the Kamal-e Fan Award for lifetime achievement in literature by the Pakistan Academy of Letters in 2003. She was the first woman recipient of the award since the literary prize was established by thePakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) in 1997.[1]
Ada Jafarey was a supporter offeminism.[6][7][30][32] She expressed her views thus:[p][4][33]
میں نے مردوں کی عائد کردہ پابندیوں کو قبول نہیں کیا، بلکہ اُن پابندیوں کو قبول کیا جو میرے ذہن نے مجھ پہ عائد کی ہیں۔۔۔ میں سمجھتی ہوں کہ بات کو بین الستور کہنا زیادہ مناسب ہے کیونکہ رمز و کنایہ بھی تو شاعری کا حُسن ہے۔
I did not accept the restrictions imposed by men, rather accepted only those restrictions which my mind has imposed upon me... I think that saying things from behind a veil is more appropriate because symbolism and allusion are the beauty of poetry, too.
Various critics say that Jafarey's poetry is full of politeness of expression. She combines both old and new thoughts in a unique artistic way through her poetry.[7]
Qazi Abdul Ghaffar, in his introduction to Ada Jafarey's collection of verses, particularly mentioned her name in the field of feminist way of expression.[6]
The Urdu poet and critic,Jazib Qureshi, said:[2]
"Ada Jafarey is the first and only lady poet who carries in her poetry the eternal colours ofGhalib,Iqbal, andJigar."
منکسرالمزاج، شائستہ اور درویش صفت
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