Review-

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!