Seminar on the works of Prof. Zahida Zaidi

*ALIGARH May 6:* A seminar was organized in the Faculty of Arts Lounge,
Aligarh Muslim University on the works of Prof. Zahida Zaidi, noted Urdu and
English poet, dramatist and critic and former teacher at Department of
English. The celebrated Urdu poet Prof. Shahryar, renowned historian Prof.
Irfan Habib, Sahitya Academy Award winner Urdu critic Prof. Abul Kalam Qasmi
and President Award winning scholar Prof. Azarmi Dukht Safavi including
teachers from Tikaram, Varshney and D. S. college attended the seminar.

The seminar discussed the work of Prof. Zahida Zaidi from various angles.
Mr. Mohd Asim Siddiqui discussed the English criticism of Zahida Zaidi at
length. He said that the literary criticism produced at the Aligarh Muslim
University echoes the critical approaches adopted by I. A. Richards, T. S.
Eliot and F.R Leavis. Like her many predecessors in India and the West,
Zahida Zaidi's criticism is enriched by her learning. Its range is often
very wide. She can choose to write on a subject as ambitious as the image of
a man in absurd drama doing justice to her topic. Zahida Zaidi's criticism
bears humanist approach.

Mr. Asim Siddiqui said that Zaidi's criticism is based on assumptions of
order, unity and truth. It definitely makes for interesting reading in a
time when search for certitudes is really desperate. At some places in her
writings, though, she appears very radical in her stance. She considers
feminism a limiting ideology. She speaks against in her address to the
readers in her collection of poems titled *Shame-E-Tanhai* . She would not
like to be pigeonholed as a feminist, feminist poet, dramatist or critic.

Professor Saghir Afrahim and Ayesha Munira discussed Zahida Zahida's novel
"Inquilab Ka Ek Din" from two different angles. Sami Rafiq elaborated the
divine element in Zaidi's Urdu poetry. Nazish Fatima read a paper on the
Urdu criticism of Zaidi. Prof. Seemin Hasan discussed the poetry of Zaidi in
a feminist perspective. Dr. Samina Khan and Dr. M. Sufiyan Islahi were quite
moved by Zaidi's drama and poetry on Gujarat genocide.

Several other scholars include Dr. Siraj Ajmali, Amodini Shridharan, Kishwar
Zafir, Haris Qadeer and Habib Subhan read paper on this occasion. Prof.
Zahida Zaidi herself spoke on her creative process. Several progressive
writers were also present in the programme. The organizers of the programme
Prof. Tasadduq Husain and Dr. Mohd Asim Siddiqui also spoke on Zahida
Zaidi's critical dexterity. Dr. Suhaib Sherwani, Prof. Asif Naqvi and Dr.
Ved Prakash were present in the programme.