• Source: Hajra Masroor

Hajra Masroor (Urdu: ہاجرہ مسرور; Hājrah Masrūr; 17 January 1930 – 15 September 2012) was a Pakistani writer who established herself with her short fiction stories, known as afsana in Urdu literature. Her elder sister, Khadija Mastoor, was also an accomplished short-story writer and novelist.




Personal life


Hajra Masroor was born on 17 January 1930 in Lucknow, British India to Dr. Tahawwar Ahmad Khan, who was a British Army medical doctor, and Anwar Jahan Begum, a published writer. Her father had suddenly died after a heart attack at a young age of 38. She had five sisters, including Khadija Mastoor, and a younger brother, Khalid Ahmad, who also became a poet, playwright and newspaper columnist. Her family was mainly raised by her mother. She began writing from her early childhood.
After independence of Pakistan in 1947, she and her sisters migrated to Pakistan, and settled in Lahore. An Urdu writer in his book wrote that no one knew Hajra was engaged with famous Urdu poet Sahir Ludhianvi but once in a literary gathering Ludhianvi pronounced a word wrongly, Hajra criticised him, he got angry and engagement was broken. Later, she married Ahmad Ali Khan, who was the editor of daily Dawn for 28 years. They were married for 57 years before he died in 2007. They have two daughters.




Career


Hajra Masroor began writing short stories from an early age. Her short stories published in the literary magazines had received high appreciation from Urdu literary circles. She edited literary magazine Naqoosh with Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi. Qasmi was also a friend of hers and her sister. She made her place in the history of Urdu literature and Urdu fiction with bold imagination and writing of short stories in a non-traditional way. She wrote simple yet effective prose, had a down-to-earth style of writing. Her early collections of short stories included Chirkey (1944), Hai Allah, and Chori Chuppay. Her collected plays were published as Woh Log. She also wrote the script of Suroor Barabankvi’s film Aakhri Station.
She wrote several books of short stories in which she raised the social, political, legal, and economic rights for women equal to those of men. Hajra Masroor was one of the torchbearer of the Progressive Writers' Movement as well as one of the pioneers of feminism in the subcontinent.




Death and legacy


Hajira Masroor died on 15 September 2012 in Karachi, Pakistan.




Bibliography


Short stories

Chand Ke Doosri Taraf چاند کی دوسری طرف
Tisri Manzil تیسری منزل
Andhere Ujale اند ھیرے اُجالے
Choori Chupe چوری چُھپے
Ha-ai Allah ہائے اللہ
Charkhay چرکے
Woe Log وہ لوگ
Charagh Ki Lau Per چراغ کی لو پر
Sargoshian سرگوشیان




Awards and recognition


Pride of Performance Award in 1995 by the President of Pakistan
Aalmi Frogh-e-Urdu Adab Award.




See also


List of Pakistani writers
List of Urdu language writers
List of people from Lahore




References






External links


Awards
Monthly Shair, Mumbai-March 2012-Hajra Masroor
A Rare Picture-Naqoosh-1960
A Rare Family Picture
Bengali translation of Hajra Masroor’s (ہاجرہ مسرور) Urdu short story Bandar Ka Ghao (بندر کا گھاؤ):

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Hajra Masroor
• Hajra
• Khadija Mastoor
• Khalid Ahmad
• Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi
• Aakhri Station (film)
• Ismat Chughtai
• Firdous Jamal
• Saadat Hasan Manto
• Ghulam Ali (singer)