Ifti Nasim

Ifti Nasim (1946 – July 22, 2011) was a gay Pakistani American poet.^[1] Having moved to the United States to escape persecution for his sexual orientation, he became known locally for establishing Sangat, an organization to support LGBT south-Asian youths, and internationally for publishing Narman, a poetry collection that was the first open expression of homosexual themes in the Urdu language.^[2] Nasim was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 1996.^[3]

Personal life

Nasim was born in Faisalabad, Pakistan (then called Lyallpur), shortly before independence, a middle child in a large family. As a teenager he felt ostracized and alone, and was unable to live openly as gay. At 16, Nasim was shot in the leg by a soldier while reading a politically charged poem, during a protest against martial law.^[4] This left lasting injuries, causing Nasim to be unable to perform classical Kathak dancing. At 21 he emigrated from Pakistan to the US, inspired in part by an article in Life magazine that he recalls describing the US as "the place for gays to be in".^[5][6] and in part due to the fact that his father was trying to marry him to a girl, leading Nasim to lie to his father and tell him he was going to America to visit.^[7] Several of his siblings later followed him to the US, and he eventually naturalized as a US citizen.

Nasim worked at a gay bar named Bistro owned by Eddie Dugan as a go-go dancer. Meeting his lover Prem, a relationship that lasted a while till Nasim discovered Prem was married; after 3-4 years however the two met again and Nasim learnt that Prem was divorced, leading the two to date again and eventually became a long lasting couple.

In 1986 he co-founded Trikone which was later renamed to Sangat/Chicago, inc. The company was officially incorporated on November 30, 1998, and involuntarily dissolved on April 13, 2007.^[8] Nasim died in a hospital in Chicago on July 22, 2011, at the age of 64, following a heart attack.

Poetry

The publication for which Nasim was best known was a book of poetry entitled Narman, a word meaning "hermaphrodite" or "half-man, half-woman" in Persian. It met immediate controversy in Pakistan and had to be distributed underground; even the printer of the book, belatedly realizing its contents, was reported to shout, "Take these unholy and dirty books away from me, or I'll set them on fire!" However, its frankness inspired a younger generation of Pakistani poets to write "honest" poetry, a genre becoming known as "narmani" poetry.^[9]

He later released Myrmecophile in 2000,^[9] and Abdoz in 2005.^[2]

References