MY
DAWN YEARS: EXPLORING SOCIAL ISSUES
By
Zubeida Mustafa
REVIEW
By Sadia Wali
What an inspiring book to read! I enjoyed every moment reading this
inspirational memoir. There are hilarious experiences which I relished the most
and sentimental events that made me cry.
As Tahira Abdullah, Development worker, researcher and rights activist
says, “It is a brave woman’s chronicle, demonstrating honesty and grit. She
stands tall in an illustrious line of fearless journalists, writing with the
courage of their convictions.”
Writing this book and compiling each and every instance
must have been a challenging task for the writer. Her style of writing is so
captivating that it keeps readers intact as I got deeply involved while reading
the memoir till the end.
The strong personality of Zubeida Mustafa was a
great inspiration for me as I got chance to meet her twice. In 2013 and 2014,
ERDC organized a seminar. I being the member of organization committee got the
opportunity to chat with her regarding her passion for writing. In 2015, I was working with Abbas Husain at
TDC; I called Zubeida Mustafa to take her views about education dilemma in
Pakistan. To my surprise she recognized me and told me that she read a few of
my articles. I felt obliged, as a great writer and renowned personality praised
my work.
Being an affectionate mother, wife and a committed
journalist, her life was hard and challenging. In her memoir, Zubeida related
her experiences of hardships how she coped with her personal and professional
life. She joined Dawn in 1975 as a young energetic journalist. She was
introduced by veteran Dawn editor, Ahmed Ali Khan. During her career, she met
several ups and downs. At one moment, she opted to leave Dawn and join The News
for career development. It was really a hard decision to leave one institution
and join another as it involves a lot of risk. In chapter, ‘Journalism of My
Time’ she explicated how she reached up to the right decision. As she
recalled, “I went home right away and called up to Ghazi to tell him I had
decided to stay with Dawn.”
During her three decades with Dawn, she experienced
different phases of how content and style of newspaper changed with the advent
of new technology. In different chapters she elucidated her experience of how
she learnt page making to writing editorials using technology. I will briefly
relate an incident experienced by Zubedia while working on her editorials.
Zubedia in spontaneous flow wrote six to seven editorials in her computer when
suddenly it hanged and then it went blank. The IT department tried hard to
retrieve her work but they failed. She had to write all over again and it took
another three hours to recall the things she wrote earlier.
As she completely her task, she felt completely
drained. She quoted in one of the
chapters, “I can understand that for
learning how to use computer proved to be quite challenging experience for me
too. It led to many heart breaking moments.”
She also related her experience of foreign tours and
got the opportunity to meet renowned writers and scholars. Along with her
colleague, Rabab Naqvi she met
Khushwant, Singh and Qurratulain Hyder in Delhi. She also recalled the first
meeting of the editorial committee she attended in Paris in 1979Feb.As she
entered the room; she was surprised as she was the only young woman there. ‘It was an exciting to some extent even
nervous event for me.” she stated in her memoir.
She transformed Dawn library and brought radical
changes in the page of Books and authors. During her career, she focused more
on writing on social issues that include women empowerment, education and
health.
During the peak of her career, she began to lose her
eye- sight that compelled her to take retirement. She could not keep focus on
her work and had to take extra help from her young colleagues.
The last part of her biography focused on her
retirement life, how peacefully and gracefully she enjoyed those days.
Her personal and professional life comes to us as an example of passion, strength and commitment. A young mother with
two young daughters coped with the male dominated world of journalism has
proved to the world that women can successfully opt for any field of life.
This book is an inspiration for every age. As you
will read, you will feel stirred and encouraged. You will learn to master your
life, empower to live and dream and overcome personal and professional obstacles
and achieve your goals.
The elegant personality and inspiring writing of
Zubeida Mustafa has highly motivated me to overcome my inhibitions and share my
experiences of life with the world!
