[Dark Saint Alaick]

The feminist method is ‘consciousness-raising’, a process of expressing and sharing their experiences. All feminists used this method in various forms. A New York based Radical group, called ‘The Red Stockings’ was the first to use it. The use of this method can be seen in all the modern Urdu poetesses. I think that this method has three divisions i.e. ‘awareness’, ‘expression’ and ‘sharing’. The ‘awareness’ you can see in the work of all the poetesses. This is the awareness of being a woman, and of being exploited as a woman. This ‘awareness’ leads to ‘expression’ i.e. poetic expression. The ‘expression’ then they ‘share’ it with the rest of their kind and the world at large. The women’s awareness of their own selves is also expressed by the similes and symbols that they use. In contrast to traditional Urdu poetry with masculine expression, the feminine expression can be seen right from the conservatives to the radicals. Ada Jafferi writes:

To adorn my hair with a flower,
I injured my hands with thorns.

Parveen Shakir says:

My body would be cooled by tears.
Let me wet my ‘anchal’ as there is so much heat.

Kishwar Naheed writes:

Naheed though looked so pale today
And the color of her ‘anchal’ wasn’t brilliant either.