Today's Google Doodle celebrates the 107th birthday of the prolific Urdu writer Ismat Chughtai who is known for her stories that exposed the harsh truths of her contemporary society. Having faced the charges of obscenity for her story 'Lihaf', along with Sadat Hasan Manto who was charged for his story 'Bu', Ismat Chugtai remains one of the most notable writers of the Progressive Writers' Association.
Google India also tweeted about her revolutionary writings which challenged the old traditions of the society.
Ismat Chughtai's writings lifted veils off old traditions. On her birth anniversary, we celebrate the revolutionist, educationist, and an icon of women empowerment. #GoogleDoodlehttps://t.co/OsbfuihHrp pic.twitter.com/t9T6EKuys2
— Google India (@GoogleIndia) August 21, 2018
Ismat Chughtai's association with education was also longstanding. She completed her primary education from the Women's College at Aligarh Muslim University. She then completed her Bachelor of Arts degree from Isabella Thoburn college in 1940.
She then went on to complete Bachelor of Education degree from the Aligarh Muslim University. She faced much resistance from her family against her wishes to pursue further education specially from her mother who objected to her inability to adhere to the social norm about how a girl should behave.
After completing her B.Ed. degree she applied for the post of headmistress of an Aligarh-based Girls school. In 1942, she moved to Bombay where she worked as an Inspectress of schools.
Ismat remained a rebel through and through. She rebelled not just against the constraints put on a woman by the society but went a step ahead and wrote about the hypocrisies of the society around her.
Today Ismat Chughtai remains an integral part of the various undergraduate courses across universities in India.
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