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Zahra Haider
Zahra Haider is a multidisciplinary writer, researcher, and community organizer based in Tiohtià:ke (Montréal). Rooted in decolonial feminisms, her work spans critical cultural commentary, narrative creation, and community-engaged arts coordination, exploring the intersections of diaspora politics, memory, and social infrastructure.
Her creative and research projects include Parallel Lines, an oral history initiative documenting intergenerational narratives of migration, supported by the Canada Council for the Arts. Her short fiction has been shortlisted for the Zeenat Haroon Rashid Writing Prize, and her critical essays and commentary have appeared across various independent and mainstream platforms. She also runs the Substack ZERO POINT and co-hosts the podcast Armpit Intellectuals.
Alongside her writing, Zahra works in regional arts and community coordination, building public programming and media that amplify grassroots resistance, migrant solidarity, and economic democracy. She is a member of the Quebec Writers' Federation and holds a background in Women's Studies from Concordia University's Simone de Beauvoir Institute.
Participant in the following FMS projects
More Info
BA (Honours), Women’s Studies, Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Concordia University
www.zahrahaider.com
zahra.haider@protonmail.com
Awards & Affiliations
Recipient: Canada Council for the Arts – Research and Creation Grant (2026)
Awarded for the novel "Parallel Lines," a matrilineal exploration of the Pakistani-Canadian diaspora.
Shortlisted: Zeenat Haroon Rashid Writing Prize for Women (2025) — Short Story: “Ajrak and Ashes.”
Member: Quebec Writers’ Federation (QWF).
Lectures, Workshops & Speaking
Workshop Facilitator | SAPAC, Tufts University (April 2026)
Urdu Feminist Resistance Poetry: Decolonial Frameworks & The Politics of Desire.
Guest Lecturer | School of Visual Art and Design, Beaconhouse National University (November 2025)
Course: Decolonial Feminisms
Presentation: Resistance in Verse: A Study of Urdu Feminist Poetry.
Podcast Host | Armpit Intellectuals (2024–Present)
Co-host of an ongoing socio-cultural and political commentary series
Guest Speaker | International Solidarity Podcast (September 2025):
Patriarchy and Colonialism in South Asia
Workshop Facilitator | Write2Heal (Montréal)
Brique Par Brique (Aug 2023)
Centre for Gender Advocacy at Concordia University (April 2023)
Panelist, The Asian Glow, Rainbow Noodles, Montreal (July 2023)
Selected Press & Interviews
CBC News: Are young voters happy with what they've heard during Quebec's election campaign? (Sept 2022)
City News: Pride a beacon of hope for those overcoming adversity (Aug 2022)
CBC Montreal: Queer Meetups helping Montreal Muslims explore spirituality (July 2022)
VICE World News: How a Beheading Triggered a Flood of Sexual Assault Accusations (Sept 2021)
Foreign Policy: Can Social Media Bring Justice for Women in Pakistan? (September 2021)
Deutsche Welle (DW): Interview on the sexual violence crisis in Pakistan (Aug 2021)
CNN: The beheading of a diplomat's daughter shows how badly Pakistan is failing its women (August 2021)
The Daily Beast: The Grisly Killing of an Ex-Diplomat's Daughter (Aug 2021)
BBC World News: The unmarried Pakistani woman who wrote about her sex life (May 2016)
Huffington Post: Meet The Woman Who Got People Talking About Pakistan’s Sex Culture (May 2016)
Published Works
2026
Montréal Serai: Life, Reheated and Poured Again
The Aleph Review: God Wears Lipstick in Karachi
The SHIFT Journal: Concordia University: Between Two Plateaus
2025 – 2024
The Friday Times: Remembering Air Commodore Sayed Sajad Haider
Montreal Serai: Culture Belongs to No One
Zero Point: Monthly Newsletter Series
2022
CBC News: Let down by Pride parade organizers, queer communities took charge
South Asian Today: Being childfree isn’t selfish - it’s my moral responsibility
She Does The City: Slowness Is Healing
Shameless: A Review of Bilal Baig’s “Sort Of”
2021 – 2020
Never Apart: Losing Touch
Wear Your Voice: When ‘Moti’ and Unmarriageable is all that you are
Naya Daur: Sexual Violence and the Hyper-masculine Nation State
ProperGaanda: Why ‘Churails’ is the story of every Pakistani ever
ProperGaanda: Sexual ‘Liberation’ and Class Struggle in Pakistan
Shameless: Interview with Artist Rajni Perera
2019 – 2018
DAWN / The Wire: A Search for Identity: Pakistani literature as a lifeline
Scroll.in: Four novels for those torn between nations
DAWN: On embracing the hyphen and hybridity of language
Bustle: What It Took To Start Talking About My Breasts
Burnt Roti: Will I Feel Like An Immigrant Forever?
2016
VICE: What I Learned Having Sex as a Young Woman in Pakistan (translated into German, French, Dutch and Greek)
The Tempest: When will we finally take the honour out of killing?
The Friday Times: Love in the time of Mufti Naeem
UX Design Projects
Feminist Research Archive: A digital, participatory platform transforming Pakistan’s feminist histories
into an interactive, community-driven archive.