Truth or dare

 

By Attiya Dawood

   It is now a tradition that when a new poetess' work is printed in regional language magazines, it becomes an object of gossip for the literary circle, even if it is very good. People talk about it in such derogatory terms and ridiculing remarks like, "do you really believe this to be the work of a woman?" answered by "how is this this must be a man using the name of a woman to get some preference in the magazines, as they prefers girls. The poetry of such calibre can hardly be the work of a lady." Then if that poetess makes an appearance in public at some function or a mushaira, her presence is recognised, but still the barrage of gossip continues. 'Her brother who is so and so is writing for her, her father or husband who's is this and that is doing the job for her,' and if nothing of the sort works or is found to be true, she's rumoured to have an affair with some recognised poet, only to prove that a woman can't write good poetry.

It is a difficult task for a poetess to first gain recognition, for only then can she get her literary potential recognised. Even at the tailend of the 20th century, the news of a girl in a village or city writing good poetry is still a news‑worthy item. Once it is established that the poetry is actually the work of a girl, than instead of her work she herself becomes an object of curiosity for the magazine editor and even for the reader. With a minor contribution or even after a singular publication, the regional language magazine editors and other men throng the poetess' place for an interview or to get acquainted with the poetess. As a consequence many upcoming and genuine girls either quit or are prohibited by their parents. Many girls are apprehensive about the atmosphere found in male dominated circles. To give vent to their creativity a majority of them turn to women's pages in magazines, especially those magazines which are being edited by women. The so‑called progressive critics then question the need for a separate women's section.

While editing the women's pages I came across a lot of criticism from these 'progressive' intellectuals. Of the many letters I received during my tenure with the women's pages almost fifty percent were sent by men. They questioned the existence of a separate world for women, which they believed I was creating by encouraging only women writers to contribute. Apart from the women's pages and some other magazines very few carry the work of these poetesses. Many of the magazine editors argue about the standard of poetry by women.

Art and literature are God gifted, but they also require indepth knowledge, study and observation. Within the four walls of their houses, the creative instincts of the women of our biased society are left with little choice on their part. Not only the poetesses of small town and villages suffers this fate, even the women of metropolitan cities who are mostly economically self‑sufficient suffer the same sexual dicrimination and prejudice. Morality and respect is a purely 'feminine problem' in our society.

Women are simply not considered as thinking human beings. Poetesses are also women, wary about their selfrespect and cautious regarding their image. So far many have made a place for themselves, forging ahead, at each and every step, by either changing their names, or by using a psuedonym. Yet they continued to create and contribute like our senior poetesses, but sadly many have stopped writing poetry without assigning any reason. They simply argue that they don't get inspiration and are disheartened. Women writers and poetesses choose to stay aloof and don't even socialise in the literary circles. To participate in male dominated literary circles is difficult for them or is made difficult.

The need of the hour is to create women's literary circles to tap the latent talent and motivate writers from far‑flung areas and urban writers to come forward and create an atmosphere for more women to join in the movement. The women associated with NG0s can do better than others in this regard by motivating the women sitting at home, by contacting them individually no matter how small these literary circles may be. Let the movement take root and more will follow.

Translated by Salman A.Ansari

DAWN, Tuesday Review, Mar 12 - 18, 1996

Sindhi | Urdu | English |  Main Page

Website designed and created by abroDesign
For design inquiries contact [email protected]
For comments E-mail Attiya Dawood

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1