Altaf Fatima (Urdu: الطاف فاطمہ‎; born 1927 in Lucknow, British India) is an Urdu novelist, short-story writer, and teacher (specializing in Muhammad Iqbal). Her novel Dastak Na Do ("Do not knock ") is regarded as one of the defining works in the Urdu language.[citation needed] An adaptation was presented on Pakistan television and an abridged translation was serialised by the Karachi monthly, Herald.