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Ada Jafri

Ada Jafarey[a] (PP, TI) also spelt Ada Jafri[1] (born 22 August 1924 in Badayun, U.P., British India)[1][2][3][4] is a Pakistani poet who is regarded as the first major Urdu poet who publishes as a woman[1][3][4][5] and has been called "The First Lady of Urdu Poetry".[1] She is also an author[6] and is considered a prominent figure in contemporary Urdu literature.[1][3][7] She has received awards from Pakistan Writers' Guild, the Government of Pakistan and literary societies of North America and Europe in recognition of her efforts.[3]

Early life 
Ada Jafarey was born on 22 August 1924, in Badayun, U.P. Her birthname was Aziz Jahan.[b][1][3] Her father died when she was three, and her mother reared her.[6] She started composing poetry when she was twelve[1][3] years old, under the pen name of Ada Badayuni. She spent her early life within impassable social bounds.[7]

Married life 
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 the Federal Government of India. Ada Jafarey also moved with her husband to Karachi after the independence of Pakistan in 1947.[3] Her husband was a littérateur himself who wrote columns for both English and Urdu newspapers. He also served as the president of the Anjuman-i Taraqqi-i Urdu. Nurul Hasan, a major inspiration to her writing, passed away on 3 December 1995.[1]

Later life 
She currently resides in Karachi, Pakistan.[1] She frequently travels back and forth between Karachi and Toronto, playing an active role in promoting Urdu.[3]

Family 
Ada Jafarey and Nurul Hasan Jafarey have three children, Sabiha Jafarey, Azmi Jafarey and Aamir Jafarey.[8] Sabiha Jafarey is married to Zubair Iqbal and is settled in Potomac, Maryland, US. They have three children Sabah Iqbal, Yusuf Iqbal and Sameer Iqbal.[8] Azmi Jafarey and his wife Shua Jafarey are now settled in Andover, Massachusetts, US. They have two sons, Faaez Jafarey and Aazim Jafarey.[8] Aamir Jafarey, and his wife, Maha Jafarey, together with their daughter Asra Jafarey, live with Ada Jafarey in Karachi.[8] Ada Jafarey has two great grandchildren, Sabine Rana and Rizwan Rana, children of Sabah Iqbal Rana and her husband Fawad Rana.[8]

Literary career 
The first female poet 
Ada Jafarey was part of a traditionally conservative society where women were not allowed to think and express independently.[3] But she was bold enough to express herself.[7] Despite having traditionality ingrained in her personality, she took part in modern art.[1] She holds the title of the First Lady of Urdu Poetry.[d][1][3] Her mother, and her husband Nurul Hasan Jafarey, encouraged her to keep on her literary activities in spite of social difficulties.[1][3]

Style 
Ada Jafarey writes in a more or less gender-neutral mode,[9] though her works include feminist themes like discrimination and dehumanisation of women and of them being viewed as sexual objects.[4] 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 fulfilment that accompanied these relationships.[4]

Genre 
Ada Jafarey's works are mostly Ghazals,[6] but she also experimented with azad naz m,[e][10] as well as Urdu Haiku.[6] She took the takhallus, ‘Ada’, in her Ghazals.



Works 
Ada Jafarey published her first collection of poems, “Main_ Saz  hun_ ti Rahi” [g] in 1950. She has published five collections of Urdu poetry, in addition to an autobiography, short essay, and forty research papers.[1][3] She also published her collection of Urdu Haiku, Saz-i Suk_h_n[h][6] Her autobiography, “Jo Rahi so BeK_h_abri Rahi”[i] has also been published.

Awards 
Ada Jafarey was awarded the Adamjee Literary Award by the Pakistan Writers' Guild in 1967 for her second poetic collection, S_h_ahr-i Dard.[j][3] In recognition of her work, the Government of Pakistan awarded her the Medal of Excellence in 1981.[3] She received the Baba-e Urdu, Dr. Maulvi Abdul Haq Award from the Pakistan Academy of Letters in 1994, and the Quaid-e Azam Literary Award in 1997.[1] She was also the recipient of the Hamdard Foundation of Pakistan's Certificate of Merit.[1] She is the recipient of various international awards from literary societies in North America and Europe.[3]

The Government of Pakistan conferred upon her the Pride of Performance Award for Literature in 2002.[3] She was the recipient of the Kamal-e Fan Award for lifetime achievement in literature by the Pakistan Academy of Letters in 2003. She is the first woman recipient of the award since the literary prize was established by the Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) in 1997.[1]

Feminist views 
Ada Jafarey is a supporter of feminism. He famous lines is transalated as follows:

“
Translation: 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.

Critical reputation 
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.[7]

The Urdu poet and critic, Jazib Qureshi, said:
“Ada Jafarey is the first and only lady poet who carries in her poetry the eternal colours of Ghalib, Iqbal, and Jigar.”

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