An Analysis of Poetry of Swat’s Afsana

Abstract

Swat has its own literary tradition in the history of Pashto literature. Prominent literary works of Pashto literature produced in Swat. Women writers and poetesses of Swat have also contributed to Pashto poetry. Among them one Pashto poetess from Swat is known as Afsana. She has an unpublished manuscript of her poetry. She burnt her early poetry on account of social and cultural restrictions. Later on her husband burnt her (manuscript) dewan because it was against his honour that she was writing poetry. The current manuscript of her poetry was preserved by her brother and nephews. In this article manuscript of her dewan has been introduced and analyzed. Efforts have also been made to write about her family, children, education, poetry and life from the internal evidences of the dewan.