By Rameez Makhdoomi
Bina Shah is not just a name with eight alphabets, but a name that represents intellect, dynamism, charisma for Pakistan on global radar. Bina Shah is a writer of English fiction and a journalist living in port city of Karachi, Pakistan. She is the author of four novels and two collections of short stories. She is a regular columnist for the Dawn and the Express Tribune, Pakistan’s major English-language newspapers,
and has also contributed to international newspapers The Guardian, The Independent, and the International Herald Tribune and international journals Granta.com, Wasafiri and Critical Muslim.
Bina was born in Karachi, Pakistan and was raised in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Pakistan. She holds a degree in Psychology from Wellesley College and a Masters in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is a fellow of the University of Iowa, having participated in the International Writers Program in 2011. Her humorous writing, political satire, and clear-eyed view of social issues have earned her critical praise and a devoted following amongst Pakistanis all over the world.
From her blog writings to opinion pieces or for that matter writing novels Bina Shah is a champion writer and activist championing the cause of girl education in her country Pakistan. From writing on social to political issues Bina Shah is among the rare writers whose pen has complete grip over diverse topics with greater efficiency.
Every line of her is brilliantly written .In her recent article ‘Humans without humanity’ Bina Shah wrote following magnificent lines –“After watching Sunday’s events of the horrible bombing of the Christian church in Peshawar, where 81 people have been killed and over a hundred injured, seeing the protest rallies erupting, and the latest news of campaigns teaching Pakistanis that “Christians are Pakistanis too”, it strikes me that Pakistan is in need of a massive public re-education campaign about how to be a good human being.”
Shah’s latest novel latest A Season For Martyrs was published in Italy by Newton Compton as Il Bambino Che Credeva Nella Liberta in March 2010. For this novel, Shah was awarded the Premio Internazionale in the Un Mondi di Bambini category of the Almalfi Coast Literary Festival in July 2010 for translated fiction. It will be published in the United States by Delphinium Books in 2014.
Her first book, a volume of short stories called Animal Medicine was published in 2000. Her novel, Where They Dream in Blue was published by Alhamra in 2001. A second novel, The 786 Cybercafé was published by Alhamra in 2004. In 2005, “The Optimist”, a short story written by Bina was published in an anthology called And the World Changed (Women Unlimited/OUP); an essay called “A Love Affair with Lahore” was published in an anthology edited by Bapsi Sidhwa called City of Sin and Splendour – Writings on Lahore(Penguin India – Pakistani title Beloved City – OUP). In 2007 Alhamra published her second collection of short stories, Blessings.
Pertinently, her novel, Slum Child, was a bestseller in Italy, selling over 20,000 copies. This book is all about the life in slums and how they live day to day. What they do. How they take care of each other. The people in slums are united, no matter what their ethnicity is, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Punjabi, Sindhi, balochi etc they are united under poverty flag. Bina Shah has awesomely portrayed these grim realities via her pen .
Bina Shah has also bagged several prestigious awards. Her story Hearing the Hopes of Pakistan’s Deaf World won an Agahi Award in the category of Education.
While I salute this charismatic persona of Pakistan I would like to quote her superb words –“your opinion is only one of many, and only an opinion at best”, you wish most people in the world would understand that and make this world a beautiful place to live. Certainly personas like Bina Shah are pride and hope for Pakistan and humanity in these difficult times .