
Zarminae Ansari
Zarminae Ansari is an architect, cultural tourism consultant, and journalist who has lived in eight countries around the world and is currently residing in Portugal. She is the founder of Joy of Urdu, a bilingual, volunteer-run organization aimed at promoting the Urdu language and reclaiming literary heritage. The initiative, which began in 2013, has grown to include over 150 volunteers worldwide and offers bilingual resources for children and adults online, as well as in Joy of Urdu Reading Group Chapters in many countries.
Ansari’s passion for Urdu was ignited while studying at the Lester Pearson United World College in Canada and later at the National College of Arts, Lahore, where she was introduced to the poetry of Faiz. Questions of identity and decolonization in architecture remained her focus during her Masters from MIT (Cambridge, USA). She founded Joy of Urdu while living in Moscow out of concern for her son’s connection to Urdu.
On the 10th anniversary of the organization, they launched their bilingual publishing house and their first book, a coffee table keepsake: ‘Three Tales from Gulistan-e-Saadi’. Ansari’s work has been instrumental in promoting a renewed interest in Urdu literature, poetry, and cultural heritage, making significant strides in creating accessible and engaging resources for young readers, language beginners, and those who wish to return to the joy of their ancestral and/or national language.