When a case of alleged obscenity was placed against Ismat Chughtai for her story Lihaaf, part of her response in an interview was — “It’s my belief that experiences can never be obscene if they are based on authentic realities of life”. True to her words, Chughtai’s stories portray the lives of real women — with sexual desires, frustration, and all things that were not attributed to women — seeking ways of a fulfilled life under the pressures of a society that keep them shackled in isolation and in service to the family.

Her work was revolutionary for its time, and based in truth, they hold their own more than 90 years later. “She wrote about the society she belonged to and had the courage and boldness to write about it,” says Muneera Surati, clinical psychologist and author.