Official Statement by Khizra Zaheer on the “Moon Controversy”
Latest Literary Buzz
If you’re anything like us and are obsessed with Pakistani literature, you have heard of the latest controversial buzz in the literary community. We’re calling it the “Moon Controversy” because of the similar use of the word “moon” in two book titles– Noor Unnahar’s ‘yesterday I was the moon” and Khizra Zaheer’s “the moon has my heart“. In this case, the author of “the moon has my heart” has been accused of stealing concepts and content from Unnahar.
In the past week, things have unfolded with quite a twist: the publishers of said plagiarized book have issued an official statement; Unnahar has talked about the scandal on both her Instagram and her Facebook; and now Khizra Zaheer, the author of the book said to be plagiarized, has come forward with what she has to say about it all.
While writing a comprehensive article on just how such an event came to be, Daastan reached out to Ms. Khizra Zaheer to ask how she would like to address the situation. She responded with a detailed explanation.
Khizra Zaheer’s Official Statement
“First of all my new book (the moon has my heart) is crafted with all the hard work, time and efforts including cover that is neither plagiarized, copied, burgled, robbed or theft by any other book. In the past two days, the issues that were raised for my newly launched book cover (the moon has my heart) were totally baseless and senseless.
The author of the book (Yesterday I was the moon) instead of contacting directly with me or my publisher regarding her concerns, she preferred to post about her concern/issue directly on the social media platforms. And being the influencer she had used all the platforms to put false claims of plagiarism and allegations on me and Auraq Publications without having any evidence of it. These postings at her social media accounts and all other social groups had brought me a lot of damage and defame to me with abusing and this intensely had hurt my credibility that I have earned professional field in both local and international industry in over ten years. Seriously it takes a lot of years to create credibility and people demolish it within a fraction of seconds even without proofs. Though Auraq Publications have offered her to have a copy of my book (the moon has my heart) for proper understanding of the book but she denied to have it.
Through your platform [Daastan], I want to say that if you really want to see the truth and factual based stuff then do check out the images and link attached at Facebook and Instagram pages of Auraq Publications or at my Instagram handle @khizra.zaheer.
The analysis of both books are keenly and carefully tested and analyzed by renowned industry experts and NCA professional designers. It’s my humble request to you all for future that without seeing the real image and verification don’t put your words in everyone’s mouth else it will bring lots of damage. People abused, accused and alleged me for the whole senseless dramatic story.
Also just to clear, the MOON is universal object and can be used by anyone while the concept of both book titles are totally different (the moon that is a part of yesterday with the cut of lines, yesterday I was the moon while my new book concept is revolving around the moon that has my heart).
The attached images and all stuff under the link of Our official pages will give a real peace to all people’s hearts and souls who have put worst allegations on us. So it’s to clear you all that the font, color, layout, style, blueprint, background, images and content are neither copied, stolen, theft, robbed and burgled nor violated any COPYRIGHTS of any book. I am really very thankful to Auraq Publications that have greatly supported and tackled the issue in a better and thoughtful way.
However, for more understanding of the inside content, where I put my heart and all the efforts, you can order my book directly so you can know well before blaming someone that what I have originally put in it.
Note that we reserve all the rights, including legal notice, to proceed and act if the humiliation and assassination continues. Thank you!
What do you think about this?
Zaheer firmly claims that no part of her book– concept, content or layout– is plagiarized and her book is the result of her hard work and efforts. In the light of everything that has unfolded, it seems to come as a surprise that the author has taken a strong viewpoint and is denying all accusations made against her. What Unnahar or the rest of the community has to say about this is still not known.
If you want to check out the evidence the author has talked about, you can click here. Let us know what you think about the #mooncontroversy in the comments below!