Parveen Shakir - Words Of Rebellion

Literature is the essence of life, it is what grows and survives, it is something that is immortal in itself. It is what we live for and die for, it is what stays inside our hearts and mind. In a much wider sense, it is what makes us more human in every sense. 

Urdu literature which was primarily governed by the male perceptive has risen to the changes and evolved and is becoming richer by women’s writings and in a sense of the expression is giving rise to modern feminism as an inspiration to others.

Parveen Shakir was one of the legends of Urdu literature. She was a teacher and civil servant along with being a master poet. Her poetry brought out a feminine voice to Literature. She broke the barriers of a patriarchal society and presented notions of feminist angels. She addressed the stigmas surrounding the rights and freedom of women.

Her poetry spoke about a lot of things here for instance these lines of her from “The Insight “speak out against the patriarchy that dwells within our society.

Girls of raw years and tender minds

Have the virtue

Of water, ready to take shape

Of the pan, they are poured into

And brim or boil or evaporate

If their master wishes so.

In these verses, she describes the social norms and the sort of upbringing that is given to females to obey their masters.

She establishes the society that is dwelling on patriarchy but she defines that women don’t need to be the same.

And here I am

Stubborn and rebellious

Instead of being just contained in an empty bowl,

I want to strike against it

With all my might

To expose its shallowness

By its echo.

Moreover, she highlights the social status and place of women in society, the independent identity of women which needs to be acknowledged. Shakir also invokes femineity in her poem, which speaks out against the tyranny of social hierarchy.

In her many couplets, there is this romanticism that buds with the feminist ideals within themselves, and this is what brings and gives freshness to her poetry in all eternity. Her poetry focuses on female empowerment, social constraints, and atrocities suffered by women. Shakir expresses her desires and the purity that love holds but at the same time torments the cynicism imposed upon women in the name of gender, religion, and societal norms.

He holds

All my reins

But wants me

With my consent

This is a beautiful couplet from her collection “Tejaswani” here the male has the authority to control her and he wants to act upon the wishes of her seeking her consent. Shakir is in a confusion whether to appease this male or listen to her own ego. This is a harsh reality that every woman faces.

There is another poem by her where a woman deflects the advances of a suitor and how truthfully, she has expressed this is beyond description.

No, my veil is stained
and your turban’s every fold still crisp;
no breeze has yet dared
caress them.
Your bright forehead
does not yet hold a lost hour
from days past
that’s swelled and broken
as regret,
and I cannot meet your eyes
from the dark of my own.
Oh, young man,
don’t gaze at me this way.
Take your fireflies,
your flowers—keep them safe.
Flowers will slip from a torn veil,
and fireflies, at first chance,
will scatter, however harsh
the light beyond.

Needless to say, Parveen Shakir is one of a kind and her poetry is a blossom of new-age feminism.