"One of Pakistan’s greatest Urdu poets of the twentieth century, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, had spent the first few years of Zia’s time in power in prison and then in exile in Beirut, preferring the chaos of Lebanon’s civil war to the darkness of repression. An uncle and mentor of Taseer, the leftist poet of love and revolution had embraced the intellectual effervescence of Lebanon and found kindred spirits among the Palestinian revolutionaries sitting on café terraces during cease-fires. But the Palestinians kept attracting worse and worse Israeli retaliation and, in the summer of 1982, Israeli tanks reached Beirut. Faiz and his wife were forced to flee and return to Pakistan. He died in his home country a month before Zia’s referendum, perhaps in anticipation of the unbearable realization that the general had found a way, yet again, to stay in power."
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Academics from PakistanPoets from PakistanJournalists from PakistanUrdu-language poetsUrdu-language writers
Original Language: English
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Kim Ghattas Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East (2020)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Faiz_Ahmad_Faiz
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Faiz Ahmad Faiz
Faiz Ahmad Faiz (13 February 1911 – 20 November 1984) was an Urdu Marxist, poet, and author. He was one of the most celebrated writers of the Urdu language, equally revered in both Pakistan and India.
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