Poets and Speakers

Photo: Goethe-Institut / Vivek Muthuramalingam

Jameela Nishat was born in Hyderabad. Her father, Syed Bin Mohammad, was a portrait artist. He was also a close friend of artist M F Hussain. She started writing at an early age. Her first poem was published in the year 1970. For some time, she wrote in Kitab Numa, a journal published in Jamia Millia University in Delhi and in various other poetry magazines. Her first book, Lava - a collection of poems, was published in the year 2000. Hoshang Merchant, translated some of her poems from the book Lava and the translated poems were published by Sahitya Academy in the year 2008. She has published three collections of poetry. Her work has also been featured in various other anthologies. SPARROW published a booklet on her life and work in 1999. She was one of the feminist poets at 100 Thousand Poets for Change Conference held from 3 June to 8 June 2015 in Salerno, Italy. In 2012, she founded the "Shaheen Collective - Shaheen's Women Resource and Welfare Association" to serve the cause of Muslim women. The organization works for the welfare of women and elimination of domestic and social violence.

Poems

کرچیوں پر چل کر /
Auf holprigen Wegen, rennend

کوئی تصویرکسی پیکر کی تلاس میں ہوں /
Ein Profil sucht sein Gesicht

برقع پہن کر نکلی /
Ich zog die Burka an und ging fort

بارہ تیرہ سال کی میں تھی /
Zw??lf oder dreizehn war ich