Widely recognized and felicitated as “India’s First Woman Dastangoi Artist”, Fouzia is crafting narratives and captivating audience for over two decades. She has not only broken into the male-only bastion of storytelling, but is striving every single day to revive the 13th century dying art of oral Urdu storytelling, Dastangoi, in the country.

Fouzia has performed over 500 shows all over India and internationally. She initially specialized in narrating stories and enthralling her audience with her voice and story – key weapons she plays by, and no audio-visual support, nor music to express the complexities of human emotions and transport her audience to the world of stories of imminent writers like Ashraf Subohi Dehelvi, Ismat Chugtai, Intizar Hussain and others. These stories touch hearts of children, young and old alike – renditions include: Dastan of Ghummi Kebabi from lanes of Old Delhi, to the sensitive feminist writing of Ismat Chugati’s Nanhi ki Nani. From mental health to communal harmony to feminism, Fouzia has mastered the art of picking the right stories and performing them for her audience in a way that strikes the right chords. 

Apart from her usual fare, Fouzia is transforming and popularizing storytelling to newer areas, reaching new audience by bringing traditionally-ignored or limitedly-performed issues through her storytelling. This includes integrating melodious renditions to cover increasingly diverse topics, such as: Dastaan-e-Khusro; Dastan-e-Radha Krishan; Dastan-e-Sahir; Dastan-e-Meena Kumari; Dastan-e-Kabir; Dastan-e-Ram; Dastan-e-Mahabharata and Dastan-e-Ghalib among many others. In 2017, Fouzia opened A. R Rahman’s concert ‘The Sufifi Route’

Fouzia has been able to leverage storytelling to not just perform stories for various audience – she has immersed herself to identify the issues that are impacting our society and doing shows, sessions, and melodious renditions to help address these. Some of her work in this area includes: Safe Motherhood – an initiative where all women and girls realize their right to quality health and well-being; Dastan-e-Bhanwari Devi – reminding us of the ghastly gangrape and the story of strength which is relevant even after 30 years. As an artist, Fouzia is using her voice and skills to share stories Better India through her show, “Ummeed Unlimited”.

Fouzia has been a regular as a storyteller, performer and an artist to meet and talk to her audience through various platforms. She has leveraged her storytelling and engagement strategies to touch hearts of her audience. She performed Dastan-e-Bollywood (covering Meena Kumari and Madhubala) on RedFMPodcasts. She has also participated as a speaker and artist on various TEDx platforms. 

She has developed and delivered workshops with schools and colleges to promote social issues like mental health and gender equality through the medium of storytelling. Most recently, Fouzia was involved with the University of Sheffield, UK, to help revive Rekhtigoi language and delivered a performance.

Fouzia was recognized and felicitated as “India’s First Woman Dastangoi Artist” by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India in 2018. She was also recognized among the SheThePeople: 40 Over 40 in the year 2020, which celebrates women over forty who have achieved, reinvented themselves and claimed their space under the spotlight. In 2019, Fouzia was awarded REX-Karmaveer-Global-Fellowship as well as Karamveer Chakra Award, a civilian honour given by the International Confederation of NGOs (iCONGO) in partnership with United Nations. Fouzia has also been felicitated by the Ghalib Academy in Delhi in 2022. In 2018, Fouzia features on the cover of Women’s Day Special edition of HT Brunch.