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A Bad Woman's Story: A Translation of Buri Aurat Ki Katha
This book is Kishwar Naheed's response to those who are quick to label a woman as bad. It is a searing indictment of a society that uses custom, religion and even brute force to keep women down. She hits out hard and fearlessly at social and political injustices and at the materialism and sham religiosity she sees around her. It's what you would expect of one of Pakistan's leading feminist poets, known for her defiance and outspokenness. Born to a conservative family in pre-partition India, at a time when women were in such purdah that they could not show their hand to a hakim without dipping it in flour, Naheed saw these same women turn into political activists in the run-up to Partition. She too learned to do battle early on--to go to college like her brothers, to express herself and, at the age of 19, to marry the man of her choice. The marriage turned sour and it is an indication of her refreshing candour that she doesn't gloss over her hurt and disappointment. Rich in literary, historical and cultural allusions, A Bad Woman's Story is written in a punchy, witty style that keeps the reader engaged and entertained from beginning to end.
- GenresFeminismNonfiction
196 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1994
28 people are currently reading
343 people want to read
About the author
Kishwar Naheed
65 books36 followersKishwar Naheed is a feminist poetess from Pakistan. In a field dominated by traditional male voices, she was a pioneer of a new, distinctively feminine voice and has produced over the span of forty years a body of work that is innovative, defiant, political, and self-aware. She has received several awards including Sitara-e-Imtiaz from Government of Pakistan for her contributions towards Urdu literature. Many of her books and poetry have been translated into English and Hindi.
She was born on 3 February 1940 in Bulandshahr, British India to a Syed family and migrated in 1949 to Pakistan. After her matriculation from Lahore in 1959, she did her Master's in economics from Punjab University.
Her interest in poetry arose early in life, when she used to attend Mushairas with her mother and began writing Urdu poetry as a student and has continued ever since. She is a distinguished poet who has won the Adamjee Literary Award for "Lab-e-Goya" (1969) and a Unesco prize for "Dais Dais Ki Kahanian", a book of short stories for children as she also writes for children.
She started her career at an early age by editing the children's page of Pakistan Times under the supervision of Alys Faiz. In 1961, she joined as assistant editor of monthly Dost. Later, she served as public relations officer for the Lahore Division Council (1964-67) and worked as a feature writer for the government's Department of Films and Publications (1967-72). In 1971 she was appointed as Resident Director of the Pakistan National Centre in Lahore. She also headed the Pakistan National Council of the Arts in Islamabad.
In an effort to promote literary awareness, she sponsored a literary programme for PTV known as "Mulaqat" and a radio programme called "Nai Subah". She has made an NGO "Hawwa"; working for gender equality and women's empowerment in Pakistan.
She has produced nine volumes of poetry, eight books on women’s issues, eight books of translations of contemporary resistance and international literature, and 12 books for children.
She was born on 3 February 1940 in Bulandshahr, British India to a Syed family and migrated in 1949 to Pakistan. After her matriculation from Lahore in 1959, she did her Master's in economics from Punjab University.
Her interest in poetry arose early in life, when she used to attend Mushairas with her mother and began writing Urdu poetry as a student and has continued ever since. She is a distinguished poet who has won the Adamjee Literary Award for "Lab-e-Goya" (1969) and a Unesco prize for "Dais Dais Ki Kahanian", a book of short stories for children as she also writes for children.
She started her career at an early age by editing the children's page of Pakistan Times under the supervision of Alys Faiz. In 1961, she joined as assistant editor of monthly Dost. Later, she served as public relations officer for the Lahore Division Council (1964-67) and worked as a feature writer for the government's Department of Films and Publications (1967-72). In 1971 she was appointed as Resident Director of the Pakistan National Centre in Lahore. She also headed the Pakistan National Council of the Arts in Islamabad.
In an effort to promote literary awareness, she sponsored a literary programme for PTV known as "Mulaqat" and a radio programme called "Nai Subah". She has made an NGO "Hawwa"; working for gender equality and women's empowerment in Pakistan.
She has produced nine volumes of poetry, eight books on women’s issues, eight books of translations of contemporary resistance and international literature, and 12 books for children.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 8, 2015
“Let me ask you, Mother. Have you ever seen your daughters suffocating? When their own children are turned into snakes in the grass and set against them, and the father, having completed his quota of torture, heaves a sigh of relief. When manhood is only felt to be vindicated by hanging women on the gallows of blame… While the woman is left with the consolation: an elephant may roam from place to place but will always come back to its home.”
Bad women leave the house and interact with men, bad women don’t do household chores all day, bad women write poetry, bad women aren’t happy to be a wife and a mother, bad women talk back. Bad women are those who refuse to be controlled by society.
This is the story of a Pakistani feminist poet, Kishwar Naheed, and her struggles to live her life fully in an extremely patriarchal society that uses religion as a major way to control women. Naheed struggles to be educated and to be able to write. She is always aware of the misogynist and hypocritical society she lives in and addresses this through her own autobiographical anecdotes, female figures from history, and stories she has heard from people around her.
The misogyny in this book was very hard to take at times. Women were made to feel less than human and although they were policed very severely (for example, after a certain age, they weren’t allowed to be alone with male cousins) they were blamed for everything (“Eve burst out: ‘Who punished you? Were you alone in this act, absolutely alone?'”). I’ve been following the rape news in India and have been disgusted by the fact that a woman can be blamed for her own rape and murder.
This book illuminates the Pakistani woman’s experience but we have our own feminist issues here in Canada and elsewhere, so I appreciated the fact that Naheed tells Westerners that Pakistani women are active in perpetuating change within their own society:
“To convey the struggle of Pakistani women in writing and in their daily life to foreigners is a task that tries your patience because they are convinced that we are ignorant women who sit at home.”
I admire Naheed greatly for her determination and for refusing to stick to the status quo. Living in a society that expected women to find completeness and fulfillment in matrimony and motherhood, Naheed knew this would never be the case for her. Her love of literature, poetry and writing kept her sane. In fact she goes into a lot of discussion on books and poetry, and on misunderstood female writers:
“My writing offered a shield in front of all these hatreds. My pen made a dam to hold back the flood. A house came up inside the house. My own house, the house of dialogue between me and my self, in which pen and paper became my friends to console me and make me smile. I began to rely so much on their friendship that the day I didn’t read I felt empty. And all alone.”
To finish this review, a great quote in light of Women’s Day and celebrating women writers:
“The fire of their writing inspires me to follow in their footsteps because through the voices of honest women these writers have always challenged tyrants.”
Bad women leave the house and interact with men, bad women don’t do household chores all day, bad women write poetry, bad women aren’t happy to be a wife and a mother, bad women talk back. Bad women are those who refuse to be controlled by society.
This is the story of a Pakistani feminist poet, Kishwar Naheed, and her struggles to live her life fully in an extremely patriarchal society that uses religion as a major way to control women. Naheed struggles to be educated and to be able to write. She is always aware of the misogynist and hypocritical society she lives in and addresses this through her own autobiographical anecdotes, female figures from history, and stories she has heard from people around her.
The misogyny in this book was very hard to take at times. Women were made to feel less than human and although they were policed very severely (for example, after a certain age, they weren’t allowed to be alone with male cousins) they were blamed for everything (“Eve burst out: ‘Who punished you? Were you alone in this act, absolutely alone?'”). I’ve been following the rape news in India and have been disgusted by the fact that a woman can be blamed for her own rape and murder.
This book illuminates the Pakistani woman’s experience but we have our own feminist issues here in Canada and elsewhere, so I appreciated the fact that Naheed tells Westerners that Pakistani women are active in perpetuating change within their own society:
“To convey the struggle of Pakistani women in writing and in their daily life to foreigners is a task that tries your patience because they are convinced that we are ignorant women who sit at home.”
I admire Naheed greatly for her determination and for refusing to stick to the status quo. Living in a society that expected women to find completeness and fulfillment in matrimony and motherhood, Naheed knew this would never be the case for her. Her love of literature, poetry and writing kept her sane. In fact she goes into a lot of discussion on books and poetry, and on misunderstood female writers:
“My writing offered a shield in front of all these hatreds. My pen made a dam to hold back the flood. A house came up inside the house. My own house, the house of dialogue between me and my self, in which pen and paper became my friends to console me and make me smile. I began to rely so much on their friendship that the day I didn’t read I felt empty. And all alone.”
To finish this review, a great quote in light of Women’s Day and celebrating women writers:
“The fire of their writing inspires me to follow in their footsteps because through the voices of honest women these writers have always challenged tyrants.”
April 4, 2021
Boring katha, uninspiring poetry
October 4, 2014
Buri Aurat Ki Katha, the tale of a bad woman is the tale of every woman. Every woman who wants to do something that is considered 'inappropriate' according to the social norms of that particular society. In a society where girls are not considered worthy of education and leaving threshold of the house for jobs especially if they involve interaction with the opposite gender, a woman going against these norms of society, is readily labeled as 'BAD'.
For some it might seem a thing of remote past when education was limited to boys only and women doing jobs were considered worthless, but even today a large fraction of our society considers girl's education unnecessary and even harmful for their 'honor'. For such a society, if a woman dares to marry someone she loves will only be considered a 'shame' for the family.
These are such issues that have been highlighted through this 'Katha' which is also a kind of an autobiography. I would recommend every girl to read this book at least once to give them a perspective of their existence in the male dominant society. It will allow them to see themselves from their own eyes instead of the eyes of a mother, a brother or any other member of the society.
For some it might seem a thing of remote past when education was limited to boys only and women doing jobs were considered worthless, but even today a large fraction of our society considers girl's education unnecessary and even harmful for their 'honor'. For such a society, if a woman dares to marry someone she loves will only be considered a 'shame' for the family.
These are such issues that have been highlighted through this 'Katha' which is also a kind of an autobiography. I would recommend every girl to read this book at least once to give them a perspective of their existence in the male dominant society. It will allow them to see themselves from their own eyes instead of the eyes of a mother, a brother or any other member of the society.
July 27, 2017
3.5
It's very difficult to rate this book because while I really loved reading about Kishwar Naheed's life, tribulations and rebellions, I did struggle with the translation. A LOT. The original memoir titled, ''Buri Aurat Ki Katha'' wasn't available so I had to settle for the translation.
Incredibly well-read, opinionated, headstrong and fiercely independent, Kishwar Naheed is a woman who asserts her identity in a male-dominated profession and society, and dares to question the long-held norms, values and ideas that continue to put men on a pedestal and attach little importance to the desires and ambitions of a woman.
In my country woman has no identity, she is identified by her relationships with others – she is a sister, wife, mother, daughter – but is she anything on her own?
All her life she cooks the man's choice of food, she wears clothes which please the man, jewellery, she gets dolled up, meet people - all within the moorings of her husband's will and permission. As for her own wishes, she is a stranger to them and how they taste.
And if, God forbid, a woman does assert her identity, she is deemed a ''bad woman''. What's even worse is that most women have accepted and adopted misogynistic ideas and values.
But here even women don't understand each other, rather they don't believe in their own individuality. In their opinion they are to serve others. Their belief in themselves and their self-respect is tied up in their relationships with men. They don't believe that they alone are worthy of respect. They feel that the be-all and end-all of their lives is in following the moral and emotional guidelines established by men.
She talks about the stifling oppression during the time of Zia-ul-Haq's Martial Law. I hate Zia-ul-Haq with a fiery passion, but reading this book made me despise him even more, if that's possible. Women and minorities suffered tremendously during his military regime - horrible horrible times.
When blind Safia Bibi declared: 'I have been raped. I am pregnant. I don't know the name of the rapist,' she got a slap on the face from the Shariah Court. Her sentence was 20 lashes and 14 years' imprisonment.
During the 14 years from 1979 to 1993, husbands sent their wives to jail on allegations of Zina, so they could marry a second time without hindrance. Brothers accused sisters of Zina,and in gobbling up their inheritance felt their manhood vindicated. Fathers got their daughters accused of Zina to prevent them from marrying on their own will so that they could lay their hands on the dowry which would make their own lives comfortable.
Kishwar Naheed is not afraid to expose people's hypocrisy and double standards, she talks about the innumerable challenges a woman faces when she decides to set foot outside her house to work. Yes, times have changed but not for all Pakistani women. As sad and troubling as it is, the various issues that Kishwar Naheed talks about are still very much relevant and prevalent today.
This memoir is also a love letter to literature - poetry in particular. It is poetry that helped Kishwar Naheed cope; people were never there for her but her pen and books were. She also talks about her association with radio and the resulting friendships with great affection. I couldn't help feeling sad about the state of radio today when I read this:
The atmosphere on radio at the time was a very cultured one, steeped in learning and literature. All the producers were poets or writers and appreciated the fundamentals of music.
A book that voiced so many of my own thoughts, views and frustrations should have gotten a five-star rating from me but this a translated work, and the translation (by Durdana Soomro) was rather disappointing. The choice of words and phrasing could have been better, it just felt a bit too plain and dull to me. Another thing I struggled with - I don't think this was the translator's fault - was the disjointed narrative.
I do highly recommend this memoir, if you are looking for a Pakistani feminist voice. And reading this book makes me want to read more of her books and poetry.
It's very difficult to rate this book because while I really loved reading about Kishwar Naheed's life, tribulations and rebellions, I did struggle with the translation. A LOT. The original memoir titled, ''Buri Aurat Ki Katha'' wasn't available so I had to settle for the translation.
Incredibly well-read, opinionated, headstrong and fiercely independent, Kishwar Naheed is a woman who asserts her identity in a male-dominated profession and society, and dares to question the long-held norms, values and ideas that continue to put men on a pedestal and attach little importance to the desires and ambitions of a woman.
In my country woman has no identity, she is identified by her relationships with others – she is a sister, wife, mother, daughter – but is she anything on her own?
All her life she cooks the man's choice of food, she wears clothes which please the man, jewellery, she gets dolled up, meet people - all within the moorings of her husband's will and permission. As for her own wishes, she is a stranger to them and how they taste.
And if, God forbid, a woman does assert her identity, she is deemed a ''bad woman''. What's even worse is that most women have accepted and adopted misogynistic ideas and values.
But here even women don't understand each other, rather they don't believe in their own individuality. In their opinion they are to serve others. Their belief in themselves and their self-respect is tied up in their relationships with men. They don't believe that they alone are worthy of respect. They feel that the be-all and end-all of their lives is in following the moral and emotional guidelines established by men.
She talks about the stifling oppression during the time of Zia-ul-Haq's Martial Law. I hate Zia-ul-Haq with a fiery passion, but reading this book made me despise him even more, if that's possible. Women and minorities suffered tremendously during his military regime - horrible horrible times.
When blind Safia Bibi declared: 'I have been raped. I am pregnant. I don't know the name of the rapist,' she got a slap on the face from the Shariah Court. Her sentence was 20 lashes and 14 years' imprisonment.
During the 14 years from 1979 to 1993, husbands sent their wives to jail on allegations of Zina, so they could marry a second time without hindrance. Brothers accused sisters of Zina,and in gobbling up their inheritance felt their manhood vindicated. Fathers got their daughters accused of Zina to prevent them from marrying on their own will so that they could lay their hands on the dowry which would make their own lives comfortable.
Kishwar Naheed is not afraid to expose people's hypocrisy and double standards, she talks about the innumerable challenges a woman faces when she decides to set foot outside her house to work. Yes, times have changed but not for all Pakistani women. As sad and troubling as it is, the various issues that Kishwar Naheed talks about are still very much relevant and prevalent today.
This memoir is also a love letter to literature - poetry in particular. It is poetry that helped Kishwar Naheed cope; people were never there for her but her pen and books were. She also talks about her association with radio and the resulting friendships with great affection. I couldn't help feeling sad about the state of radio today when I read this:
The atmosphere on radio at the time was a very cultured one, steeped in learning and literature. All the producers were poets or writers and appreciated the fundamentals of music.
A book that voiced so many of my own thoughts, views and frustrations should have gotten a five-star rating from me but this a translated work, and the translation (by Durdana Soomro) was rather disappointing. The choice of words and phrasing could have been better, it just felt a bit too plain and dull to me. Another thing I struggled with - I don't think this was the translator's fault - was the disjointed narrative.
I do highly recommend this memoir, if you are looking for a Pakistani feminist voice. And reading this book makes me want to read more of her books and poetry.
October 5, 2022
The format of the book seemed controlled and restricted like author held back the authenticity of her feelings. She barred herself from connecting with her own reality. It seemed like a journey of a rebellious being yet somehow many irrelevant poetic expressions shadowed the actual existance of author's ideology.
March 27, 2012
It's pretty disjointed but still, good enough. I know that's "damning with faint praise" but - what can you do?
February 27, 2015
Liberating women!
June 27, 2022
Such a solid read! Barring few problematic stuff here and there, this was such a fantastic book. So many passages that are pure poetry!
January 29, 2023
This book is the autobiography of a Pakistani poetess and feminist. Originally, the book was in Urdu, but I got my hands on this English translation. (Totally in love with the portrait on the cover 😍)
In our society, a woman can be labelled "bad" for any reason. If she wants to do something according to her will, bad woman. Wants to work outside, bad woman!
One such "bad woman" that history saw, was at the time of partition of India and Pakistan (formerly merged as the subcontinent), was Kishwar Naheed. A poetess who started poetry in an era where women doing poetry was still a foreign thought. Born in a conservative family, she really had to fight her way to get education, as well as to do personal grooming and to learn and do poetry.
From her life's account, we also learn that this lady had also made many mistakes, for which she had to pay as well. But I must say, the story is an inspiration for women who want to chase their dreams.. The reason I rated this book 7/10 is that the book gets a bit too out of flow at times, which can confuse the reader when the topic has changed, who is being referred to, etc. The main reason for this is that besides narrating her life story, Naheed also keeps presenting her raw thoughts hither and thither, whose meaning can be extracted by those who have a good knowledge of philosophy, but for others, the thoughts would swish past the brain.
I would recommend readers to give this book a read, to be introduced to a whole new world of poetry and struggle....
In our society, a woman can be labelled "bad" for any reason. If she wants to do something according to her will, bad woman. Wants to work outside, bad woman!
One such "bad woman" that history saw, was at the time of partition of India and Pakistan (formerly merged as the subcontinent), was Kishwar Naheed. A poetess who started poetry in an era where women doing poetry was still a foreign thought. Born in a conservative family, she really had to fight her way to get education, as well as to do personal grooming and to learn and do poetry.
From her life's account, we also learn that this lady had also made many mistakes, for which she had to pay as well. But I must say, the story is an inspiration for women who want to chase their dreams.. The reason I rated this book 7/10 is that the book gets a bit too out of flow at times, which can confuse the reader when the topic has changed, who is being referred to, etc. The main reason for this is that besides narrating her life story, Naheed also keeps presenting her raw thoughts hither and thither, whose meaning can be extracted by those who have a good knowledge of philosophy, but for others, the thoughts would swish past the brain.
I would recommend readers to give this book a read, to be introduced to a whole new world of poetry and struggle....
Read
July 11, 2017Surprisingly satisfying, eventhough there were times in between in which i wanted to leave the book unread because of its intense pessimisitic yet painfully true tone. Anyhow Kiswar Naheed tells an original yet very familiar story of the so called "bad" women of the world. Truly she is a pillar of the Great Urdu literary tradition, she surely makes you want to read of of her works
January 14, 2019
Definitely a book better read in Urdu. I felt like a lot of meaning was being lost in the translation. Naheed is one of the strongest feminists in Pakistan today. Her journey from conservative UP to her life in modern Lahore is interesting, but needs to be explored in more depth.
Want to read
January 18, 2021Good
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews