| Homaira Nakhat Dastgirzada حمیرا نکهت دستگیرزاده | |
| Birth Date: | 17 May 1960 (26/27 Sowr 1339) |
| Birth Place: | Kabul, Afghanistan |
| Death Date: | 4 September 2020 (aged 60) |
| Death Place: | Utrecht, Netherlands |
| Known For: | Poetry |
| Alma Mater: | Kabul University Sofia University |
Homaira Nakhat Dastgirzada (حمیرا نکهت دستگیرزاده) (17 May 1960 - 4 September 2020), best known as Nakhat, was a well known Afghan poet. She wrote numerous pieces of Persian literature that were "very lyrical, with a lot of imagery."[1] Dastgirzada was nicknamed the Blue Poet of Afghanistan (شاعر آبی افغانستان)[2]
Homaira Nakhat Dastgirzada was born at Masturat Hospital in Kabul.[3] Her mother was from Herat, a traditionally popular city of Persian literature. Dastgirzada started writing poems aged twelve, which would later be published in magazines.[1] She would eventually produce literary and artistic programs for Afghan National Radio and Television in 1983. She achieved a doctorate in Persian literature at the University of Sofia, Bulgaria. She played a key role in establishing literary program to students in universities and schools in Kabul,[3] and was a well known public figure.
She married in 1982 and has two children, Hariwa and Hajir. After the hardline Taliban took power in Afghanistan in 1996, Dastgirzada secretly set up a women's poetry club in Kabul.[4] She moved to the Netherlands in 1999, where she settled with her family in the city of Utrecht and co-founded the Association of Afghan Writers and Poets in Exile with other Dutch Afghan artists.[1]
Her poems were written mostly in the form of lyric poetry, specifically Persian ghazal. Although they were deep about pain and sorrow, the main theme remained hope.[3] They were about various topics including social issues, injustice, motherhood, nostalgia of Afghanistan, and new found discoveries in the Netherlands.[5] A number of her works have been translated and published into Dutch.
Many of her works also broke taboos and gave energy to Afghan women and poets.[6]
Dastgirzada died from cancer on 4 September 2020.[7] Four days later, her funeral was held in Utrecht attended by 200 people.[1] Then-President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, called her death an " irreparable loss to the cultural and literary community."[1]
Fifteen collections of poetry were published (one posthumously).[4]
A list of selected published works by Dastgirzada: