LAHORE: Speaking at the LLF2025 session on `Society Girl: What happened to the late poet Mustafa Zaidi and Shahnaz Gul`, co-author of the book Tooba Masood said the media trial of Ms Gul portrayed her as a bad girl.

The session was moderated by Sanam Maher, author of A Woman Like Her, A Short Life of Qandeel Baloch.

Tooba said she came across the idea to research on the death of famous Urdu poet Mustafa Zaidi after the death of her father and she collaborated with Saba Imtiaz to find out what happened to the poet. She said that a murder case was registered against the Shahnaz after she was found unconscious in the same house where the poet was found dead. She said that she had collected the media coverage of the case and found that Shahnazwas portrayed as a bad girl and was linked with drug smugglers. She conducted an investigation and found out that the woman was treated unfairly and she remained silent over the issue.

Tooba Masood said in the media showed Mustafa was trapped, he was portrayed as a good civil servant although he was dismissed from service over corruption charges while Shahnaz was called an airhostess.

While replying to a query about taking permission from the family about writing a book, Ms Masood said she first came to know that Shahnaz Gul was alive but after six months, she discovered that she had died and had a daughter. `I went to meet her daughter and also took permission to write a book about her mother.

Tooba Masood said she also found the grave of Shahnaz Gul.

While replying to another query about choosing to write a book about Shahnaz, she said she was not comfortable at first but her co-author, Saba Imitiaz, cleared her doubts. `During investigation, my interest to know about Shahnaz Gul increased day by day and I found that the society did not do justice with her.

She said it still remained a mystery whether the poet was killed or not but the media and society portrayed a girl as a villain.

She said investigation revealed that Shahnaz Gul wasa strong woman and also was an intellectual like Mustafa Zaidi and she had also written poems in Persian language. She said she had found the poet Mustafa Zaidi as complex character and awkward while some of his friends said that he was suicidal and had some mental issues. Imran Gabol