The lines above from Kishwar Naheed's poem ‘Censorship’, written in the 1980s, are emblematic of the resilience that marks her poetry collections and her biography. She is a towering figure amongst her contemporaries, a pioneering self-professed feminist poet of the twentieth century, with a utopian vision for the kind of nation she wants Pakistan to be. Her writings offer an alternative gendered history that is avowedly secular. Like her contemporaries, Kishwar's progressive and secular trajectory has been strongly influenced by Faiz, but her ambition has been greater: to convince the Urdu literati that she is an equal contender as a woman. Naheed's strategy for prominence has been to shift her audience from the world of Urdu intellectuals to activists and women's groups. As a civil servant, she worked in close proximity with the state as part of the information team. This experience and connection has given her the power of influence as well as exposed her to the limits of free expression. She has used both these contexts strategically to build networks and relationships while avoiding the charge of corruption through her integrity. Thus the profile of civil service combined with feminist activism has helped to translate a groundbreaking and prolific literary output into a transformative one. In the argument that follows, I set out how Naheed has managed to navigate this tricky terrain to emerge as a key caretaker of Urdu. I consider the stumbling blocks in her career and the innovations she has brought to Urdu poetry in an attempt to transgress borders and boundaries of sharafat, respectability and patriotism.