Fahmida Riaz (1946–2018) was a poet first, and everything else second. She also wrote fiction, essays and translations, and she lived her politics in public — as activist, editor and exile. Her shelf holds more than fifteen books of fiction and poetry, among them the collections Pathar ki Zaban and Badan Dareeda, Khatt-e Marmuz, the novel Godavari, and the first rhymed Urdu translation of Rumi’s Masnavi. This Fahmida Riaz books guide takes her books one by one: what each one is, what it is not, and where a new reader should start. She is framed here as a poet and writer, not as a conventional novelist.
Her Life in Brief
Riaz was born on 28 July 1946 in Meerut, in British India, into a literary family. Her father, Riaz-ud-Din Ahmed, was an educationist in Sindh, and the family settled in Hyderabad after his transfer there. Her father died when she was four, and she was raised by her mother. She learned Urdu and Sindhi in childhood, and later Persian — a language that would shape her best-known translation (Wikipedia). Rekhta’s profile gives 1945; this guide follows 1946, the date used by Wikipedia and Dawn.
Her first poem was published in Funoon, the magazine edited by Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, when she was fifteen. After college she worked as a Radio Pakistan newscaster, then with the BBC Urdu service in the United Kingdom, where she also earned a degree in film-making. Back in Pakistan she worked in advertising in Karachi before starting her own Urdu publication, Awaz. Its liberal, politically charged content drew the authorities’ attention in the Zia era: the magazine was shut down, her husband Zafar Ali Ujan was imprisoned, and she faced more than ten criminal charges, including sedition. She later served as managing director of the National Book Foundation and of the Urdu Dictionary Board (Rekhta). She died in Lahore on 21 November 2018, aged 72, and is buried in the Bahar Shah graveyard there. Her honours included the Hellman/Hammett Grant (1998), the Al Muftah Award (2005), the Pride of Performance and the Sitara-e-Imtiaz (both 2010), and the Kamal-e-Fun Award (2014). She was hailed as a pioneer of feminist literature in Urdu, defining feminism as the belief that women, like men, are complete human beings.
The Books, One by One
Pathar ki Zaban (1967) — the first collection
Start here. Pathar ki Zaban — “the language of stone” — was Riaz’s first book of poetry, published in 1967. It is the work of a very young writer finding her voice: direct and plain-spoken, already impatient with the pieties around her. It is the right first read, because everything that follows grows out of the voice she establishes here.
Badan Dareeda (1973) — the controversial second collection
Badan Dareeda is the book that made Riaz’s name, and the one that brought her the trouble that defined her. Her second collection of verse, published in 1973, was attacked for what critics called erotic and sensual expression — themes that, until then, were considered taboo for women writers in Urdu. The controversy is part of the book’s story: she wrote about the female body and desire where women poets were expected to write about neither. Read it second, after Pathar ki Zaban.
Dhoop, Kya Tum Poora Chand Na Dekho Ge and the later collections
Riaz kept publishing poetry between the early controversy and her final books, and the titles turn up in every list of her work: Dhoop, Kya Tum Poora Chand Na Dekho Ge, Mein Mitti Ki Moorat Hoon and Ye Khana-e-Aab-o-Gil. No reliable year is pinned down for these collections in the sources used here, so none is given. Two late collections do carry dates: Sab Laal-o-Guhar (2011) and Tum Kabir (2012), published in the last years of her life. Read these after the first two collections, in any order.
Godavari — the novel
Godavari is Riaz’s best-known work of fiction, and it is not a conventional novel. It is a novelette — about a hundred pages of it first appeared in the spring 1992 issue of the journal Aaj — semi-autobiographical and set in Maharashtra in the mid-1980s, drawing on her years in India. It was translated into English by Aquila Ismail and published by Oxford University Press in 2008. Read it after the poetry, as a short, personal fiction of displacement and return. No standalone book-publication year is pinned down, so this guide gives the 1992 journal appearance and the 2008 translation, and no other year.
Qila-e-Faramoshi (2017) — the historical novel
Qila-e-Faramoshi, published in 2017, is Riaz’s final book and her second novel: a historical novel set in fifth-century Ctesiphon, capital of the Persian Sasanian empire, following Mazdak, a Zoroastrian priest often described as the first socialist revolutionary, through a famine in which common people starve while nobles hoard food. It is a very different book from Godavari — large in scale, distant in time, and asking who pays when power protects itself. An English translation, Fortress of the Forgotten Ones by Sana R. Chaudhry, appeared in March 2026; read it last among the fiction.
The prose shelf: Qafile Parindon Ke, Karachi and Zinda Bahar
Not all of Riaz’s prose is fiction. Qafile Parindon Ke (2008) is a prose work from the middle of her career, and two further titles turn up in every list of her books: Karachi and Zinda Bahar, the latter described as a travelogue, autobiography and history of the subcontinent in one. No reliable year is pinned down for either of these two in the sources used here, and this guide does not guess one. With the short-story collections Adhoora Aadmi and Khule Dareeche Se and the title Gulabi Kabotar, they make up the rest of a shelf wider than the poetry alone suggests.
The translations — Rumi, Bhitai and Shaikh Ayaz
Riaz’s translations are a substantial part of her standing. She produced the first translation in rhyme of the Masnavi of Jalaluddin Rumi from Persian into Urdu — the work her Wikipedia entry names first among her achievements. She also translated the works of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai and Shaikh Ayaz from Sindhi into Urdu, carrying two of Sindh’s great poets into the language she wrote in. They show a writer formed by three languages — Urdu, Sindhi and Persian — moving literature between them. Read the Rumi translation after her own poetry, when you can hear how her ear for Persian shaped her Urdu lines.
Seven Years in Exile
No guide to Riaz can skip the exile, because it produced some of her most-read poems. During General Zia-ul-Haq’s rule, more than ten criminal charges were filed against her, she was charged with sedition under Section 124A of the Pakistan Penal Code, and her magazine Awaz was shut down. Bailed out by an admirer of her work after her arrest, she fled to India with her sister and two small children, on the pretext of a Mushaira invitation. Her friend, the poet Amrita Pritam, spoke to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on her behalf and gained her asylum. Her husband joined the family in India after his release from jail.
The family spent almost seven years in exile — some accounts say over six — before returning to Pakistan after Zia’s death, on the eve of Benazir Bhutto’s wedding reception. During the exile Riaz was poet-in-residence at Jamia Millia Islamia university in Delhi, where she learned to read Hindi. Her collection Apna Jurm Sabit Hae reflects her homeland’s experience under the dictatorship — the exile itself, as poetry written while it was happening. Her later poem Tum bilkul hum jaisey nikley, comparing Hindu nationalism in India with religious fundamentalism in Pakistan under Zia, was recited at a Delhi seminar on 8 March 2014.
Where to Start: A Reading Order
First, Pathar ki Zaban — the first collection, where the voice begins. Second, Badan Dareeda, the book that made her name and the controversy with it. Third, Godavari, her short novel of displacement. Fourth, the later poetry — Dhoop, Kya Tum Poora Chand Na Dekho Ge, Sab Laal-o-Guhar and Tum Kabir — in any order, with the exile collection Apna Jurm Sabit Hae alongside them. Then the translations, above all the Rumi Masnavi, and finally Qila-e-Faramoshi, the last novel. Readers who want only the essential Riaz can stop after Badan Dareeda and Godavari. For the wider company she kept, our Jamila Hashmi novels guide covers another woman writer centring women’s lives, and our Mumtaz Mufti books guide covers a fellow progressive writer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Was Fahmida Riaz a novelist?
Primarily, no — she was a poet, short-story writer, essayist and translator who also wrote two novels. Godavari is a short, semi-autobiographical novelette, and Qila-e-Faramoshi (2017) is a historical novel. Her reputation rests on her poetry, above all Pathar ki Zaban and Badan Dareeda.
Why was Badan Dareeda controversial?
When Badan Dareeda appeared in 1973, Riaz was accused of using erotic and sensual expressions in her poetry. The themes she wrote about — the female body and desire — were, until then, considered taboo for women writers in Urdu.
Why did Fahmida Riaz live in exile in India?
Under General Zia-ul-Haq she faced more than ten criminal charges, including sedition, and her magazine Awaz was shut down. After being bailed out following her arrest, she fled to India with her sister and two small children; the poet Amrita Pritam helped gain her asylum from Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. She spent almost seven years there, as poet-in-residence at Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi, and returned to Pakistan after Zia’s death.
What awards did Fahmida Riaz win?
The Hellman/Hammett Grant from Human Rights Watch (1998), the Al Muftah Award (2005), the Pride of Performance and the Sitara-e-Imtiaz, both in 2010, and the Kamal-e-Fun Award from the Pakistan Academy of Letters (2014). The Sheikh Ayaz Award for Literature in poetry (Government of Sindh) is also listed among her honours, with no year pinned down in the sources used here.
Research date: November 6, 2026. Facts verified against Wikipedia and Rekhta, with the Godavari publication history confirmed in the Riphah Information Portal essay “Fahmida Riaz in prose” and the Qila-e-Faramoshi translation confirmed in the Asian Review of Books. Where sources disagree — her birth year is given as 1945 by Rekhta and some obituaries, and as 1946 by Wikipedia and Dawn — this guide follows 1946 and says so. Badan Dareeda is dated 1973 in Wikipedia, Dawn and the obituary record, not 1974. No publication year is given for Dhoop, Kya Tum Poora Chand Na Dekho Ge, Karachi or Zinda Bahar, because no reliable source pins one down.