ISLAMABAD: Famous Urdu Poet Ada Jafarey Tuesday was remembered on the occasion of her birth anniversary. Born on August 22, 1924 in Badayun, Uttar Pradesh her birth name was Aziz Jahan. Her father, Maulvi Badrul Hasan died when she was three and her mother reared her. She started composing poetry when she was twelve years old, under the pen name of Ada Badayuni. She was regarded as the first major female Urdu poet to be published and has been called “The First Lady of Urdu Poetry”.
She was considered a prominent figure in contemporary Urdu literature. She received awards from the Government of Pakistan, the Pakistan Writers’ Guild, and literary societies of North America and Europe in recognition of her efforts. She married Nurul Hasan Jafarey in 1947 took her pen name Ada Jafarey. Her husband and Ada Jafarey moved with her husband to Karachi after the independence of Pakistan in 1947. Her husband was a littérateur himself who wrote columns for both English and Urdu newspapers and served as the president of the Anjuman-i Taraqqi-i Urdu.
Residing in Karachi, she used to frequently travel between Karachi and Toronto, playing an active role in promoting Urdu. Ada Jafarey died in the evening of March 12, 2015 in a hospital in Karachi at the age of 90.