Parveen Shakir - Beautiful and talented female poet

Urdu poetry is just incomplete without the poetry of Parveen Shakir (1952-1994). She can be considered as the best female poet in the history of Urdu literature. Parveen Shakir was born in Karachi on 24th November, 1952. She held MA degrees in English Literature and Linguistics from University of Karachi. She taught as a teacher at University of Karachi and Trinity College, USA for 9 years before joining the Pakistan Civil Service, where she served in the Customs department. In 1986, she was appointed Second Secretary, CBR in Islamabad. In 1991, she did her Masters in Public Administration at Harvard University in 1991.

In her life, she printed five collections of her poetry that are Khushboo (1976), Sad-barg (1980), Khud-kalaami (1990), Inkaar (1990) and Maah-e-Tamaam (1994).

Her first book, Khushboo, won the Adamjee Award. Later she was awarded the Pride of Performance by the Government of Pakistan.

In 1994, she died in a car accident at age 42 in Islamabad. Pakistan will always remember her as a national heroine.