Wajida Tabassum (16 March 1935–7 December 2011)
lived in the princely state of Hyderabad Deccan, located
in south-central India, and was a writer of fiction, verses
and songs in Urdu. One of the foremost women writers
in the language, she was known for her audacious and
semi-erotic stories and her formidable power of storytelling.
Her bold writing, through which she took on societal taboos,
was seen as immoral and scandalous and faced many a public
protest. Otherwise a woman who lived in purdah, Tabassum
chose to write about strong and uncomfortable themes
that made her ‘unpopular’ with the Indian society
of the mid-1900s.
During the 1960s and 1970s, her stories were published
in India in many magazines. Her books include Teh Khana,
Kaise Samjhaoon
, Phul Khilne Do
, Zakhm-e-Dil Aur Mahak
Aur Mahak, and Zan, Zar, Zameen, which was her last work,
published in 1989. Her story titled ‘Utran’ (Cast-offs) was
televised as a popular soap opera of the same name in India
in 1988.