Ishrat Afreen

Ishrat Afreen is an Urdu poet and womens rights activist named one of the five most influential and trendsetting female voices in Urdu Literature. Her works have been translated in many languages including English, Japanese, Sanskrit and Hindi. The renowned ghazal singers Jagjit Singh amp Chitra Singh also performed her poetry in their anthology, Beyond Time . Famed actor Zia Mohyeddin also recites her nazms in his 17th and 20th volumes as well as his ongoing concerts.

Ishrat Jehan was born into an educated family in Karachi, Pakistan as the oldest of five children. She later took the pen name Ishrat Afreen. She was first published at the age ofin the Daily Jang onApril 1971. She continued writing and was published in a multitude of literary magazines across India and Pakistan. She eventually became assistant editor for the monthly magazine Awaaz, edited by the poet Fahmida Riaz. Parallel to her writing career she participated in several radio shows on Radio Pakistan from 19701984 that aired nationally and globally. She later worked under Mirza Jamil on the now universal Noori Nastaliq Urdu script for InPage.

Source: Wikipedia