Arfa Sayeda Zehra

Arfa Sayeda Zehra is a Pakistani educationist and Urdu language expert. She studied first at Lahore College for Women University, then Government College University, with further degrees from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Zehra is a professor emeritus of history at Forman Christian College and is a former principal of the Lahore College for Women University. She was a chairperson on the National Commission on the Status of Women. Zehra is a former caretaker provincial minister of Punjab. She is recognized for her knowledge on the Urdu language and literature and is specialized in intellectual history and South Asian social issues; outside of the university sphere, she speaks at language conferences and televised forums.

Education

Arfa Sayeda Zehra completed a Bachelor of Arts with honors from Lahore College for Women University. She earned a Master of Arts in Urdu from Government College University in Lahore. She completed a Master of Arts in Asian studies and a Doctor of Philosophy in History from University of Hawaii at Manoa.[1] Her 1983 dissertation was titled Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, 1817-1898: Man with a Mission.[2]

Scholarly career

From 1966 through 1972, Zehra was a lecturer at Lahore College for Women. She became an Assistant Professor in 1972 and taught until 1984.[1] She served the Vice Principal of Lahore College for Women University from 1985-1988 before becoming the principal from 1988-1989.[1][3] From 1989 to 2002 she was the Principal of the Government College of Women, Gulberg. From 2002 to 2005 she was a member of the Punjab Public Service Commission. Zehra was a chairperson on the National Commission on the Status of Women.[1][3] Zehra is a former caretaker provincial minister of Punjab.[3][4] She joined the faculty at Forman Christian College as a Professor of History in August 2009. She was a visiting faculty member at the following institutions Lahore University of Management Sciences, the National College of Arts, National School of Public Policy, and National Institute of Management. Her research is in the areas of intellectual history, historical analysis and critique, human rights, and gender literature and social issues.[5][6] She is a professor emeritus at Forman Christian College in Lahore.[7][8]

Urdu language

Zehra is recognized for her knowledge on Urdu language and literature.[3] She advocates for continued use of the language, for access to books, and for a "literary revolution" of Pakistani youth for their national language.[9] On the language itself, she has discussed the influences of classism and colonialism on the language's speakers and perceptions of the language itself.[8][10] Her literary influences include Ghalib and Syed Ahmad Khan.[8] She is lauded as a historian and moderates forums on the language.[11]

Personal life

Zehra is an advocate for human development, basic human rights, and gender equality, although she states that has never been an official member of any non-governmental organization, instead choosing to work through education.[5][8] She is chairperson of the National Commission on the Status of Women and moderated a forum on women's basic legal rights.[12] Her work for female equity and parity was a factor leading to her choice to teach at a women's college.[8]

Awards and honors

Zehra was a University of Hawaii 2016 Distinguished Alumni Awardee.[7]

gollark: osmarkslisp™ is probably TC while regex is… probably a "context-free" grammar?
gollark: So if you replace the osmarkslisp™ parser with json.decode and work out how to fix the string/atom distinction given that, and add string manipulation functions, parsing regex should be doable.
gollark: Well, Lisps are typically encoded in S-expressions, but it's entirely possible to have an utterly homoiconic program in JSON instead.
gollark: My code prints an intractably large number of bees and is thus superior.
gollark: ```pythonf=lambda x,y=9:f(x**x,~-y)if y else 9;print("BEES"*f(a:=f(9),a))```You should fear this.

References
  1. "Profile of Directors". Punjab Rural Support Programme. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  2. Zehra, Arfa Sayeda (1983). Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, 1817-1898: man with a mission (Thesis).
  3. Memon, Qalandar Bux (28 November 2014). "Herald exclusive: In conversation with Arfa Sayeda Zehra".
  4. Hanif, Intikhab (19 November 2007). "20-member cabinet to take oath today".
  5. "Arfa Zayeda Zehra Biosketch" (PDF). Centre of Biomedical Ethics and Culture. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  6. "Dr Arfa Sayeda Zehra". Forman Christian College. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  7. "2010-2018 Distinguished Alumni Awardees". East West Center. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  8. Memon, Qalandar Bux (28 November 2014). "Herald exclusive: In conversation with Arfa Sayeda Zehra". DAWN. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  9. Durrani, Raania Azam Khan. "The dream of a literary revolution". The Friday Times. Archived from the original on 25 April 2011. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  10. Ahmed, Ebad (11 February 2017). "What happened to Urdu?". Geo.tv. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  11. Ahmed, Hassaan (25 February 2017). "True history of Pakistan cannot be read in course books, says Zehra Nigah". www.pakistantoday.com.pk. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  12. "Their lives don't matter". Retrieved 10 October 2018.
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