Raging to be free
I,
travel, within my lonliness I am the favourite of
totures clamps Walking barefoot on
hot sand, under the blazing sun
These
are the lines from Attiya Dawood's poetic collection: “On the Wings of
Time.” Attiya Dawood, in her expressions, is a bold voice of the Sindhi
women. She has been struggling for self‑identity since her
childhood. Attiya Dawood is one among those souls who fight against the
wrong social set‑up from their birth to death. She does not accept
any difference between other men and women. She thinks the slogan of 'fair
sex' for women is an attempt to push them into the darkness of ignorance.
Attiya objects to such hostile attitude of this male‑dorninated
society in a peculiar manner:
'You‑a
man as a human creature
I, a woman as a human creature
The
word is the same
But
you
have given so many meanings to it
As
if my body's separate identity was
my crime.
(The
other side of
Attiya
Larik who born on April 1, 1958, in Goth Moledino Larik (a small village)
in district Naushebro, Feroz. Since her childhood, Attiya has felt herself
as powerful and as strong as her brothers and males of the world.
While
expressing her feelings, she quotes two incidents of her life when she was
only six. Once she went to a millstone (Chakki) for grinding about five
kilograms of wheat. Attiya says this grind‑stone was far from her
home and no girl or woman dared to step towards it, and this task was
performed only by the males who are considered braver and stronger than
females. She did it and felt a sense of great satisfaction. Similarly, a
single woman usually cannot travel alone in our society and especially
from interior Sindh, but Attiya broke this tradition and made a journey by
train at her young age, She says, "I couldn't measure my happiness 1
gained through buying a ticket and tracking alone."
Such
experiences made Attiya to dislike being dependent on the male members of
the society. Attiya is not against the menfolk but is in conflict with
such a social setup in which the womenfolk become completely paralyzed.
She reflects these feelings in her words:
The
journey of my life
From
home to grave‑yard Like a dead body
I
weigh heavy on the shoulders of father, brother, husband, son.
Bathed
in the name of religion,
Nailed
to the coffin in the name of traditions,
I
am buried in the grave‑yard of
ignorance.
However,
her father Dawood Larik who married four times, was a Maulwi and used to
teach children Holy Qura'an at the Mosque. According to Attiya, he was an
optimist and never liked to differentiate between a girl and a boy. Her
father was in favour of education for girls. So he sent Attiya and her
three step‑sisters to school, where Attiya received her primary
education. When Attiya was six, her father died. Apparently, she was very
young at the time of her father's funeral but mentally she was very
mature. For instance, she disliked the title of orphan in the name of
sympathy. She says, "this thing depressed me and I felt some
inferiority and abasement in myself." She was very grieved over her
father's death. The time passed, covering all sympathies and sorrows in
its shell, and she cleared her matric examination from Miran High School,
Hyderabad.
She
was a very active student who participated in extra curricular activities
of the school. Attiy’s family and especially her, elder brother wanted
her to become a doctor, so she took Science
subjects in Intemediate. But she failed to pass the examinations and
despite frequent attempts', she couldn't make it. Her relatives blamed her
because she had a large number
of friends including boys. But
she says, in fact she was not
interested in study Science subjects and this lack of interest resulted in
failures. After a long period of time she came to know about the Arts
subjects and passed her intermediate examination. After that she found her
first job and within a very short period she did number of jobs of varying
nature. At last she became a stenographer in the Mines Department in 1987.
She
stepped into the realm of poetry in 1980 and wrote her first poem,
“Mujhe aks na bana”. Attiya Larik became Attiya Dawood due to a severe
hostility from her younger brother who never liked his sister becoming
famous. Even he objected to the publication of her name in the newspapers.
So Attiya changed her name. But she never stopped her struggles in the way
of self‑identity Her every step paved a way to her destination.
Gradually she became famous in the literary circle. As a poetess Attiya
Dawood attended number of poetry contests held at different parts of the
country.
She
also joined the Sindhi Adabi Sangat, As a writer, she joined literary
magazine and different newspapers, including Awami Awaz, Pukar and Hilal‑e‑Pakistan.
Radio Pakistan also utilized her services and her programme on women went
on air.
Sometimes
she faced public hostility too in this, way As Asif Aslam Farrukhi who
translated her first book, “Raging to be free” in English, says,
“The journey has not been an easy one for Attiya herself. A poem 'To my
daughter' in which the poet is asking her daughter to choose love above
all, when published on the literary page of a newspaper, there was a
flurry of anger and protesting letters. Attiya is not worried about the
controversies and can defend the feminist stance of her poems as the
proper subject for poetry."
"There
are some of my friends who appreciate my poems about women but they also asked me to write on other themes also." She says
that she has no intention of following this or any other advice. She said,
I believe that I have adopted this topic as my passion and not as a symbol
of fashion which can be courted in the circle as "politically correct
pose". But I am writing about what I passionately believe and its a
soul of my poetry."
Attiya
has been hailed as the, most important feminist writer in Sindhi said by
Shaikh Ayaz who says, 'each and every poem.... is lustrous like a
pearl."
Fahmida
Riaz, a famous Sindhi writer has also translated her book 'Raging To be
Free' in Urdu, and named it "Sharafat Ka Pul Sirat.
Though
Attiya was born in a small village but has spent many years in Karachi.
Here, in this city, she married Khuda Bux Abro, a well‑known painter
and photographer. She says, she married a man on her own choice because
she was totally independent in making her choice. Attyia has two
daughters. She combines her personal and family life with her work as a
writer and poetess. Besides this she works as coordinator to the Applied
Socioeconomic, Research Resource Centre (ASR), a Lahore based NGO.
"Being
a mother, for the future of my daughters, I can leave every facility of
the world but cannot leave my children alone."
Attiya
says, women must come forward and prove themselves as equal to the man.
For achieving their cherished goal they should be determined and be
confident for their success.
Courtesy:
The News
