Zaheda Hina
Zaheda Hina is an Urdu language short story writer and novelist, as well as a columnist. She has to her credit four short story collections, one novel, five collections of articles and many translated books. Her work has been translated into English, German, Hindi, Sindhi, Gurumukhi, Marathi, Bengali, Pushto, Russian, and Nepali. Ms Hina has written for the Sindhi daily Ibrat for more than two decades and also for a widely circulated Hindi newspaper, the Daily Bhaskar. She has four Hindi books to her credit, as well as a selection of short stories, and a collection of articles on feminist thought.
Fiercely passionate in the causes she espouses, Hina locates herself to the left of the political spectrum and her work attacks patriarchal attitudes towards women. In 2001, she was awarded the SAARC Literary Award. She refused to accept Pakistan’s highest literary award from the hand of the then military ruler in 2006, but later accepted it from a democratic government in 2011.
She has worked for the BBC Urdu Service, Voice of America and Radio Pakistan and has written plays and serials for Pakistan Television.