Parveen Shakir was a distinguished Pakistani Urdu poet, bureaucrat, and teacher. She is renowned for her distinctive, often feminist, voice in modern Urdu poetry, particularly the ghazal. Her first major work, ‘Khushbu’ (1976), established her as a major literary figure. Alongside her literary career, she served with distinction as a civil servant in Pakistan’s Customs Department, rising to a senior position. She died tragically in a traffic accident in Islamabad at the age of 42.