Ishrat Afreen (alternative spelling: Ishrat Aafreen; born 25 December 1956) is an

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

poet. Her works have been translated in many languages including English, Japanese,

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

and

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

. The ghazal singers

Jagjit Singh Jagjit Singh (born Jagmohan Singh Dhiman; 8 February 1941 – 10 October 2011) was an Indian composer, singer and musician. He composed and sang in List of languages by number of native speakers in India, numerous languages and is credite ...

Chitra Singh Chitra Singh (; formerly known as Chitra Dutta) is an Indian ghazal singer. She, alongside her second husband, Jagjit Singh, popularized the ghazal genre. Respectfully known as the "king and queen of the Ghazal world," the husband and wife duo c ...

also performed her poetry in their anthology, ''Beyond Time'' (1987).

Zia Mohyeddin Zia Mohyeddin (; 20 June 1931 – 13 February 2023) was a British-Pakistani film actor, producer, director, and television broadcaster who appeared in both Pakistani cinema and television, as well as in British cinema and television throughout ...

also recites her

nazm ''Nazm'' () is a major part of Urdu and Sindhi poetry that is normally written in rhymed verse and also in modern prose-style poems. is a significant genre of Urdu and Sindhi poetry; the other one is known as ghazal. is significantly written ...

s in his 17th and 20th volumes as well as his ongoing concerts.

Early life and career

She was first published at the age of 14 in the ''

Daily Jang The ''Daily Jang'' () is an Urdu language newspaper headquartered in Karachi, Pakistan. It is considered one of Pakistan's newspaper of record and a leading newspaper of Pakistan. History It is the oldest newspaper of Pakistan in continuous p ...

'' on 31 April 1971. She continued writing and was published in a multitude of literary magazines across India and Pakistan. She eventually became assistant editor for the monthly magazine ''Awaaz'', edited by the poet

Fahmida Riaz Fahmida Riaz () (28 July 1946 – 21 November 2018) was an Urdu writer, poet and activist from Pakistan. She authored many books, such as ''Godaavari'', ''Khatt-e Marmuz'', and ''Khana e Aab O Gil'' in addition to the first translation in rhyme ...

. Parallel to her writing career she participated in several radio shows on

Radio Pakistan The Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (); also known as ''Radio Pakistan'', serves as the national public broadcaster for radio in Pakistan. Although some local stations predate its founding, it is the oldest existing broadcasting network in P ...

from 1970 to 1984 that aired nationally and globally. She later worked under Mirza Jamil on the now universal Noori Nastaliq Urdu script for

InPage InPage is a word processor and page layout software by Concept Software Pvt. Ltd., an Indian information technology company. It is used for languages such as Urdu, Arabic, Balti, Balochi, Burushaski, Pashto, Persian, Punjabi, Sindhi and Sh ...

. In 1985, she married Syed Perwaiz Jafri, an Indian lawyer and settled in India. Though they moved to the United States in 1990 and now reside in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. They have three children together. Ishrat Afreen is currently the Principal Urdu Lecturer for

The University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

's Hindu Urdu Flagship Program.

Education

Afreen pursued her undergraduate education at the Allama Iqbal Govt College Karachi and later received her master's degree in Urdu Literature from the

University of Karachi The University of Karachi (; informally Karachi University, KU, or UoK) is a public research university located in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. Established in June 1951 by an act of Parliament and as a successor to the University of Sindh (which is ...

, Pakistan. She also taught at the Aga Khan School and boardinghouse.

Publications

Afreen has published two collections of poetry entitled ''Kunj Peeleh Poolon Ka'' (1985) and ''Dhoop Apne Hisse Ki'' (2005). Amongst others, she has been included in the prestigious anthology ''We Sinful Women'' and inspired the well-known anthology ''Beyond Belief: Contemporary Feminist Urdu Poetry''.ASR Publications, 1990. Lahore, Pakistan.

References

External links

Official siteUrdu Study at University of WisconsinBBC: 2005's Most Important Urdu Publications

Article on Launching of "Dhoop Apne Hissay Ki"Image of Newspaper Spread in Urdu
{{DEFAULTSORT:Afreen, Ishrat 1956 births Living people Urdu-language poets from Pakistan Muhajir people Pakistani feminist writers Pakistani women's rights activists Writers from Houston University of Karachi alumni Poets from Karachi Pakistani emigrants to the United States Pakistani women writers Pakistani emigrants to India