A teacher, poet, columnist and civil servant words can never be enough to write about the queen of words. Parveen Shakir was born on 24th November 1952. She started writing at the very early age, she initially wrote poetry with Beena as her pen name. Famous poet Amed Nadeem Qasmi was her mentor her initial collection used to publish in his collection. In 1977, the lady of love published her first collection of poetry called ‘Khusbu’ fragrance that came out like a fire cracker in the world of poetry.
Khushbu gave her a dream start and then her road to success never stopped. She employed mainly two forms of poetry in her work Gazal and Free verses. Her poetry is a subtle and beautiful combination of classical traditions and modern sensitivity. Her prominent work is based on feminism, romanticism and social stigmas. It won’t be wrong if we say that she was the first woman poet, who used the word ‘larki’ in her writings in a man dominated Urdu poetry. Her poetry is a reflection of feminine perspective on love, romance, aloofness, separation and intimacy.
Parveen Shakir was a highly educated women she was a double masters in English Literature and linguistic from Karachi University. She was Fullbright scholar at the University of Hartford Connecticut. She also had a master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University. The lady also worked as the civil servant of Government of Pakistan in the Customs Department and was appointed as second secretary of CBR in 1986.
She was awarded a Pride of Performance award by Government of Pakistan for her remarkable contribution to Literature.
The success story of this legendary poetess ended on 26th December 1994, when she died in a car accident on her way to work in Islamabad but she will always be remembered in the form of her writings.
