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Imtiaz Dharker (Born 1954) is a Scottish Muslim poet, artist and documentary film-maker.

Contents 1 Family 2 Works 2.1 Poetry 2.2 Film and Illustration 3 Publications 4 References

[edit] Family

She was born in Lahore to Pakistani parents. She was brought up in Glasgow where her family moved when she was less than a year old. She is now married to Simon Powell, the founder of the organization Poetry Live and divides her time between London, Wales and Mumbai. She says she describes herself as a "Scottish Muslim Calvinist". Her daughter Ayesha Dharker is a well known actress in international films, tv and stage.^[1]

[edit] Works

[edit] Poetry

As of 2009 she has written four books of poetry Purdah (1989), Postcards from God (1994), I speak for the Devil (2003)and The Terrorist at my Table (all self-illustrated).^[1]

She is a prescribed poet on the British AQA GCSE English syllabus. Her poems Blessing and This Room are included AQA Anthology, Different Cultures, Cluster 1 and 2 respectively.

The main themes of her poetry include home, freedom, journeys, geographical and cultural displacement, communal conflict and gender politics.^[1] All her books are published by the poetry publishing house Bloodaxe. Purdah And Other Poems deal with the various aspects of a Muslim woman's life where she experiences injustice, oppression and violence engineered through the culture of purdah. In the poem Purdah 1 she says

Purdah is a kind of safety.

The body finds a place to hide.

The cloth fans out against the skin

much like the earth that falls

on coffins after they put dead men in.

The poem Blessing revolves around the theme of water as a precious resource:

silver crashes to the ground

and the flow has found

a roar of tongues.

This Room centres on the theme of change and freedom:

This room is breaking out

of itself, cracking through

its own walls

She was part of the judging panel for the 2008 Manchester Poetry Prize, with Carol Ann Duffy and Gillian Clarke. For many she seen as one of Britain's most inspirational contemporary poets.^[2]

[edit] Film and Illustration

Dharker is also a documentary film-maker and has scripted and directed over a hundred films and audio-visuals, centring on education, reproductive health and shelter for women and children. In 1980 she was awarded a Silver Lotus for a short film.^{[citation needed]} An accomplished artist, she has had nine solo exhibitions of pen-and-ink drawings.

[edit] Publications

• Purdah. (Oxford University Press, 1989)
• Postcards from God. (Newcastle upon Tyne: Bloodaxe, 1997) ISBN 1-85224-407-0
• I Speak for the Devil. (Bloodaxe 2001; Penguin Books India, 2003)
• The Terrorist at my Table (Bloodaxe 2006; Penguin Books India 2007)

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c} "Imtiaz Dharker". Poetry International Web. http://india.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=2720&x=1. Retrieved 2006-11-20. 
2. ^ AQA (2002). AQA Anthology 2005 onwards. Oxford University Press. 

Persondata
NAME	Dharker, Imtiaz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Contemporary British-Indian poet
DATE OF BIRTH	1954
PLACE OF BIRTH	Lahore, Pakistan
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH

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