Skardu event celebrates 13-year-old author's novel on Palestine

A literary event in Skardu celebrated the publication of Before the Sirens Came, an English novel by 13-year-old Syeda Minsa Zahra Zaidi that tells the story of a Palestinian girl, with speakers praising the author for taking up the war at her age.

Bazm-e-Ilm-o-Fun organised the ceremony at Aiwan-e-Iqbal. Historian and author Yusuf Hussainabadi presided. Writer Muhammad Hassan Hasrat, Dr Uzma Saleem, principal of Degree Girls College Skardu, and journalist and author Qasim Naseem were guests of honour, according to the account of the event carried by AhluBayt News Agency. Writers, historians, poets, journalists and teachers attended, along with students of the college, the author's parents and Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly member Dr Sharif Astori.

Hussainabadi said that a 13-year-old recognising the suffering of Palestinians, grasping the issue's international weight and writing a whole book on it showed unusual sensitivity. He also said several rulers of Islamic countries had not grasped the seriousness of the Palestine issue or their collective responsibility towards the Muslim community, and that their attention stayed on retaining power and protecting personal interests.

Hasrat said the novel's narrative continuity, writing style and serious subject made it a valuable addition to English literature, and that it could help bring Palestinian suffering to international attention. Naseem said publishing a book at 13 was itself an extraordinary achievement, and that writing in English could carry the Palestinian case to a wider readership abroad.

Dr Uzma Saleem said a voice might seem small but could reach the whole world when it carried truth and sincerity. She urged the college's students to take inspiration from the author, told them to believe in their dreams and recited verses by the Urdu poet Amjad Islam Amjad.

Agha Zamani, a social and literary figure, said Minsa was the daughter of his close friend Dr Zawar Hussain Zaidi and had shown both literary ability and a deep connection with Palestinians. Through the story of a Palestinian girl, he said, the book portrays an oppressed child's pain, her dreams, her family bonds and her longing for freedom.

Minsa told the gathering in English that the deaths of children, young girls and ordinary civilians in Palestine had pushed her to write. She had first intended a suspense novel, she said, and changed course after developments in Palestine in October, encouraged by her father. She said the book could not fully portray what Palestinians were living through, and that her aim was to bring the voices of the oppressed to the world. She also said the sacrifices of those who support oppressed people and hold to principle should not be forgotten.

Her father, Dr Zawar Hussain Zaidi, thanked the organisers, Mir Aslam Sahar, the speakers and the participants, and said the family's concern for Palestine had grown from its religious and family environment. He said 1,000 copies had been sold and another 1,000 would be published next March, with copies presented to academic, literary and educational figures in Baltistan. He thanked Agha Syed Mujtaba Zamani for reading the book and preparing a detailed review, and said his daughter had received Quranic education from Qari Askari, a teacher from Baltistan.

Other speakers included Imtiaz Sadiqi, poet Ehsan Ali Danish, former municipal chairman Taqi Akhunzada and journalist Qasim Butt.