Soliha Shabir is a 23 year old author from Srinagar Kashmir, who received widespread acclaim for reviving legendary Habba Khatoon’s poetry in her book titled ‘Zoon’- The Heart of Habba Khatoon.
Kashmir’s most famous poetess Habba Khatoon is the inspiration of the young author’s book.
A graduate of Islamia College she has already found a place in Asia Book of Records, India Book of Records and India’s World Records by being the first individual in 500 years to revive Habba Khatoon’s poetry.
The book isn’t translation of Habba Khatoon’s poetry, but Soliha’s own words expressed with the pain of Khatoon’s heart.
Soliha first began scribing at the age of 15, penning down her first work ‘In the Lawn of Dark’. In this book she has written motivational quotes to inspire those are at a low point in their life. The aim of the book as she says is to encourage reading as the book is hardly an hour’s read filled with inspirational messages and quotes.
After this Soliha began honing her craft, learning and attending various writing workshops. Soon the author from Dalgate published her second book in 2019, named ‘Obsolete’. The book is a collection of poems based on daily happenings in our society. The focus is on the struggles of women, their pain is documented elegantly by Soliha in her book.
Her latest book ‘Zoon’- The Heart of Habba Khatoon was launched in December 2020. It is a compilation of poems centered around the pain of Habba Khatoon.
According to the author herself the aim of this book is to make people intrigued about the life of Habba Khatoon, her struggles and pain. This in turn she hopes will gravitate more people about Kashmiri literature and encourage the youth to take up reading.
Soliha says that she picked English language as the medium to express her thoughts so that the millennial generation could better understand Kashmir’s history and explore for themselves the stories it holds.
Soliha Shabir has done an exceptional piece of work in reviving Kashmir’s heritage with her effort. One can hope that she continues to do more such work and brings more laurels to Kashmir.
(Featured image design: Faizan Wani, Taarukk Media)