Born into one of the most distressed places in the world, Kasmiri poet,Nighat Sahiba is a personification of women seeking their voice in a male dominated society. As a child, Nighat often wondered how there was a code of conduct for girls and no such rules for boys. At times she spent hours,figuring out the roots of discriminating behaviour in her family and hopelessly wished she was a boy. In this suffocating environment, books turned out to be her oxygen and she soon became an ardent reader of history, religion and fiction. Since expression was supressed in her family she found a need to vent her emotions but was scared to put something on paper.
But, passing the 10th standard exam in her first attempt (which was rare in her society) changed her family’s perception to some extent and provided some space in her brother’s social circles. This space gave her the self-belief to write her first Urdu poem in 11th standard since Urdu was the first language she could read, write and understand. Her poem was acclaimed by her brother and his friends but it took another 3 years for her to publish her first poetry. She currently works as a teacher and has completed her Post graduation in history and is also an Med. In 2014 , she was awarded, Akbar Jaipuri Memorial Award for her contribution to Urdu poetry & in 2017 Sahitya Academy awarded her the Yuva Puraskar for her Kashmiri poetry collection Zard Paneki Dair. Nighat Sahiba’s Urdu and Kashmiri poems have also been published in many prestigious literary magazines of the world.
