ON International Women`s Day, let us remember a woman writer of Urdu who could not even mention her real name in her writings. Very few knew that the real name of Mrs Abdul Q adir, once a well-known and popular writer of horror stories, was Zainab. She did not reveal her identity as a writer as it was not deemed fit back then for a woman to disclose even her name.

It was not uncommon in the early 20th Century for subcontinent`s women writers to write with a pseudonym or initials to conceal their identity. Instead of mentioning their name, many women writers put a byline on their writings that just showed their kinship to a male member of their family, such as, `daughter of` or `mother of`. Forinstance, Nazr Sajjad Hyder (18941967), Qurratul Ain Hyder`s mother and Sajjad Hyder Yildirim`s wife, was a fiction writer and her real name was Nazr-i-Zahra Begum, but her byline appeared as `Bint-iNazrul Bagar (Nazrul Bagar`s daughter). It was only at a later stage that she began writing by the name Nazr Sajjad.

So Mrs Abdul Qadir, too, had to hide her real name. In fact, in the beginning she did not dare get her stories published even with a fictitious name and, once having them written, would tear her stories to shreds as she knew it would be frowned upon. Had it not been for her son Sirajuddin Zafar, a literary figure, who got her works published, she would have remained unpublished and unknown.

Mrs Zainab Abdul Qadir`s biographical details are hard tocome by. Luckily, Mehmil (or, literally, a saddle of a camel that carried women travellers), an anthology of Urdu short stories by women writers, had appeared in 1947 from Badayun.

Compiled by some Mujid Badayuni, it also gave life sketches of women writers in their own words along with their pieces and a short story by Mrs Abdul Q adir was included in it.

Summary of what Mrs Abdul Qadir wrote in that brief life sketch, preceding her short story titled `Raseela`, follows: my ancestral town is Jehlum and I was born there in 1898. My father Moulvi Fageer Muhammad was a famous religious scholar and owned Sirajul Akhbar, a newspaper published from Jehlum.

I was schooled at home and a moulvi taught me to read Quran. Two female teachers tutored me in Urdu and Persian as well as crocheting etc. I was much different from otherchildren of my age; I had no friends and no interest in games. I spent my time thinking of my existence.

Spirituality inspired me much and I would often dream of strange things. What I really longed for was to travel to exotic places and to meet scholars and learn from them.

But when I was 14, I was married off to a government employee named Abdul Qadir. This early marriage crushed my emotions and hindered my education. I had five children, three sons and two daughters. But when these kids were quite young my husband suffered from a paralysis attack and died soon. I had to move to Lahore from Jehlum. Here my children obtained higher education and all of them were brilliant, but my two sons, Sirajuddin Zafar and Mohiuddin Alamgir, had unique capabilities. Zafar is a born poetand Alamgir a born painter.

When my children grew up I had opportunities to see scholars as Zafar, despite being rather young, has a vast circle that also includes scholars who belong to different religions and sects. Zafar is also fond of travelling and proved to be a great travel companion. So I travelled far and wide as Zafar took me to ancient temples, desolate ruins and hard-to-access places. So both of my desires of travelling and meeting scholars were fulfilled. This led me to writing and I began writing short stories. But I did not dare getting them published as I was scared that Muslims might object to them.

Secondly, I respected my mother`s religious sentiments that bordered fanaticism. So I used to write short stories and destroy them. But Zafar somehow got a hold of some of them and got them published in periodi-cals without letting me know. These pieces were received quite well and my mother died, too. So Zafar got published my first collection of short stories Laashon Ka Shehr (1936).

Though today she has fallen out of fashion and favour, Mrs Zainab Abdul Qadir`s style is highly imaginative and she creates a dream-like, surrealistic atmosphere. Her idealised world sometimes reminds one of Urdu`s classical daastaans, or tales, complete with magic and mysterious spirits who help the characters in the story. Her other books include: Sada-i-Jaras (1939), Rahiba AurDoosreAfsane(1946),Vadi-i-Qaaf Aur Doosre Afsane (1954). Takht Baagh is her novel.

Mrs Zainab Abdul Qadir died on Oct 16, 1976, in Lahore.

drraufparkh@yahoo.com