Helga Ahmad: Wife of ‘The Wandering Falcon’ author dies in Islamabad

Islamabad: Helga Catrina Ahmad, a German born environmentalist who moved to Pakistan in 1957 died in Islamabad on Saturday.

She was the wife of late Jamil Ahmad, the author of an acclaimed collection of short stories about life in Pakistan’s tribal badlands who died in 2014.

Jamil , a career civil servant, found fame as a writer late in life with “The Wandering Falcon”, which drew heavily on his experiences as an administrator in Pakistan’s desolate border areas with Afghanistan and Iran.

The book, shortlisted for Asia’s top English-language literary prize in 2011, captures the raw romance and brutality of Pakistan’s wildest terrain in the years before the rise of the Taliban.

Helga also used to write for several Pakistani publications including Express Tribune.

Paying tribute to Helga, journalist Ahmad Rafay Alam wrote on Twitter, “RIP Helga Ahmad, the bravest and most down-to-earth environmentalist I ever had the privilege of knowing. Helga was a mentor to so many, including myself. This is such a great loss. My deepest condolences to her family and her many devoted friends and followers.”