Farhat Zahid

Farhat Zahid is an Urdu poet born in 1960 in Multan. She received her education in Bahawalpur and spent many years living abroad, dividing her time between Dubai and New York, before eventually returning and settling in Lahore. Her life across different cultures has influenced her poetic vision, which combines personal emotion with observation of different ways of living.

She writes under her full name Farhat Zahid, though she is also known by her real name Farhat Sultana. Her poetry includes ghazals, nazms, and shers (couplets). The themes she often explores include love, longing, silence, gender, identity, self-reflection, and what it feels like to stand poised between expectations and inner speech. A softly expressed form of feminism is evident in many of her verses, her poems often give voice to women’s concerns, emotional truths, and inner struggles.

Two of her published poetry collections are Ladkiyan Adhuri Hai and Ishq Jeene Ka Ek Saleeqa. Her ghazals have appeared in respected Urdu journals and magazines, including Funoon, Auraq, and Nuqush. She is also a regular participant in mushairas (poetry recitals), where her work is appreciated for its lyrical subtlety and emotional transparency.

Farhat Zahid’s style is graceful and contemplative. She uses language with care, favoring imagery that evokes mood, memory and feeling rather than overt drama. Some of her couplets are noted for their quiet power, in the way they express what is often left unsaid: silence, paused conversation, emotional moments beyond words. Despite living abroad for a long time, her poetry remains rooted in Pakistani Urdu aesthetics, while also enriched by her lived experience across places.

She continues to write and participate in literary life from Lahore. Her readers value her ability to express deep feeling with restraint, to depict inner emotional landscapes, and to balance the personal with the universal. Farhat Zahid stands among contemporary women poets whose work carries both tradition and a voice of today.