Tahir Aslam Gora
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Tahir Aslam Gora (born 1963) is a Pakistani editor, publisher, translator (English to Urdu), and writer of fiction and non-fiction. He was born in Kasur City, Punjab, Pakistan in 1963 and studied at the Allama Iqbal Medical College, Lahore. Gora used to be the publisher and editor of the weekly Urdu language newspaper WATAN from 2000 to 2003 in Toronto, Canada. There, he also started the radio program, Watan Radio, on 770AM in 2001. He is a vocal supporter of the right to freedom of expression, particularly among Muslim communities. His organization, Independent Muslim Media Network (IMMN), works to protect the rights to freedom of expression for writers like Salman Rushdie, Taslima Nasreen, and Irshad Manji. Moreover, he is also working on producing television dramas relating to freedom of expression issues among Muslim communities. Among his recent literary works, Gora is responsible for the Urdu translation of Irshad Manji’s book “The Trouble with Islam”. He is also involved in the translation of the writings of Daniel Pipes and Samia Labidi into the Urdu language. As of 2005, he is working on a new novel and a new book on Islamic fundamentalism.
In Pakistan, Gora founded Gora Publishers in 1987, which published more than 100 works of literature and books on the social sciences. He has also served as editor-in-chief of the socio-political weekly journal, Hafta, and the literary journal Rujhanaat. He was active in several literary and cultural organizations in Pakistan and was a noted critic of religious intolerance in that country. He fled to Canada in the spring of 1999 following threats to his life. He is a member of the Exile Writers panel of International PEN, Canada and is on the Exile Journalist panel of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression.
He has published three collections of short stories, one novel, two collections of poems, two anthologies and one translation. Some of his work has been translated into Russian, Uzbek and English.
[edit] Selected publications
- Safar Akher Safar Hey (short stories, Urdu), Pakistan, Maktaba Tamseel, 1985.
- Mohlat (novel, Urdu). Pakistan, Tarteeb Publishers, 1993
- Yeh Udassi Ki Baat Nahein (poems, Urdu). Pakistan, Tarteeb Publishers, 1993.
- Trevogi Nadegi (novel, Russian translation). Uzbekistan, Asian Publishers, 1997.
- This is not a Matter of Sorrow (poems, English translation). Pakistan, Tarteeb Publishers, 1997.
