Attiya Dawood is an eminent feminist writer from Pakistan and a much acclaimed poet, TV playright, and women’s rights activist. She has numerous publications to her credit, and writes mostly in Sindhi. She has been bestowed with the prestigous Sindhi Adeeb Award from Akhal Bharti Sindhi Boli and Sahtya Sabha at Bombay.
Born in a village which goes by the name of Larik, in district Naushehro Feroz in Sindh, Pakistan, Attiya, comes from a rural Sindhi background and is very strong in her language and traditions. However her poetry is more than creative expression, it is revolution — a tool for challenging society with and provoking its change. It is the creative fire that she carries into the work she does with the Women’s movement in Pakistan. Amrita Pritam had said of her “Attiya is a real poet..I would like to write her in Hindi and Punjabi.”
In her her poem ‘To My Daughter’ Dawood writes:
Even if they brand you a “kari”
And condemn you to death,
Then choose death, but live to love.
Don’t sit pretty in the show-case of respectability
You must live to love.
In the desert of thirsty desires
Don’t be like a cactus, but live to love.
Attiya Dawood poetry books, Raging to be free, Sharafaat ka Pulsirat, Adhoori Chaader have been published in Sindhi, translated in English and Urdu. Her autobiography, Ainey ke Saamney/Images in my Mirror has been published through Raj Kamal Publishers in Hindi and through Oxford University Press in Urdu and English. For more on her life, works, and interviews go to www.attiyadawood.com
