JAC : A Journal Of Composition Theory ISSN : 0731-6755

Marginality of womanhood in Bapsi

Sidhwa‟s An American Brat
Dr. Devendra Kumar Maurya
Assistant Professor (English)
Govt. College Karera, Shivpuri (M. P.), India
Email- dev4175@gmail.com

Abstract-

Being woman in itself a challenge, and belongs to a suppressed minority under a fundamentalist majority make it more
critical and worsen to survive; Bapsi Sidhwa with her fiction try to portray this absurd situation of being woman in a
society that is truly dominant by Islamic fundamentalists, for them women are not more than a thing that can be used as
per their desire. As a Parsi in Pakistan it is hard for her sect to be at ease; Sidhwa‟s An American Brat is a perfect
example that describes the unbearable situations and challenges for minorities as well as for woman not only to survive
but also to fight on the daily basis under extremist power. Protagonist Zareen as a mother is alarmed for the future of her
daughter Feroza in such conditions. The journey of Feroza from Pakistan to America and her relationship with her
mother Zareen deal with all the challenges of marginality and their struggle of womanhood and identity crisis in the
present scenario. Sidhwa as a committed feminist gave a resounding voice to her clan and their unsettled existence
without any exception of eastern and western world through her moving women protagonists.

Keywords - Bapsi Sidhwa, Parsi, Culture, Marginality, Womanhood, Fundamentalist, Discrimination, Homeland,
Identity Crisis.

Perfection is terrible, it cannot have children.

Cold as snow breath, it tamps the womb
…
Voicelessness. The snow has no voice.
- Sylvia Plath (The Munich Mannequins)

Bapsi Sidhwa is one of the most important signatures of postcolonial writing, who is deeply engaged in the
movement of feminism that try to give voice to her clan as well as to her society; Sidhwa is so expressive to
provide marginalized female voices and their less discussed concerns in her writings within the community
and outside. Sidhwa not only describes the unbearable condition of women in Islamic Republic of Pakistan
but also the challenges that never going to end even after their migration to other countries with their
cultural baggage; it shows her undeterred will to give a resounding voice to her clan and their unsettled
existence without any exception of eastern and western world through her moving women protagonists. If we
closely look into her fiction one thing is sure – it is hard to recognize who is going to change their fate but it is
so easy to recognize who is controlling their present in this region of patriarchy; most of the Pakistani women
are living on marginality and go unnoticed due to the patriarchal customs and religious pressure, it is not
hyperbolic to say they are confined to homes with having any legal identity and existence. Even the most
educated and well aware community like Parsi is also facing the consequences of being minority in a
fundamentalist country; the extremist Islamic forces compelled each and every woman to live on marginality
of the bare human existence as Sidhwa claims as Zareen was much concerned about her loving daughter
Feroza, as she says, “She‟s is becoming more and more backward everyday” (9). It is becoming too hard to
bear as a mother when Feroza asked her not to come to her school like a Parsi; Feroza says:

Volume XIII Issue II FEBRUARY 2020 Page No: 254

JAC : A Journal Of Composition Theory ISSN : 0731-6755

„Mummy, please don‟t come to school dressed like that.‟ She objected to my
sleeveless sari-blouse! Really, this narrow-minded attitude touted by General
Zia is infecting her too. (10)

Zareen as a Parsi and as a woman is much concerned about her existence in Pakistan and alarm about the
future of her daughter Feroza due to the rise of fundamentalist forces and common narrow-mindedness in
every walk of life in her country, Zareen claims:

“When I was her age, I wore frocks and cycled to Kinnaird College. And that was in ‟59 and
‟60 – fifteen years after Partition! Can she wear frocks? No. Women mustn‟t show their legs,
women shouldn‟t dress like this, and women shouldn‟t act like that. Girls mustn‟t play
hockey or sing or dance! If everything corrupts their pious little minds so easily, then the
mullahs should wear burqas and stay within the four walls of their houses!” (10)

This critical circumstances for women in Pakistan compelled Zareen to think out of the box for the sake of
bright future for her daughter, after a long concentration she talked with her brother Manek in America
about Feroza‟s future and then discussed all with her husband Cyrus and told him about her plan for their
daughter, she says:

I think we should send Feroza for a short holiday […] “I think Feroza must get away,”
Zareen continued. “Just for three or four months. Manek can look after her. Travel will
broaden her outlook, get this puritanical rubbish out of her head.” (14)

Later, She becomes more desperate about this madness that going deep into the consciousness of her young
daughter Feroza, and discuss about it with her husband Cyrus, she says:

You‟ve no idea, how difficult Feroza‟s been of late. All this talk about Islam, and how
women should dress, and how women should behave, is turning her quite strange. And you
know how Bhutto‟s trial is getting to her. (30)

With all such expressions about fundamentalist forces and political situations, and especially its affect on
women made Bapsi Sidhwa a perfect ambassador of Pakistani woman in a true sense, all her writings are
based on her first hand experiences in Pakistan as well as in America, her each word and each expression is
coloured with her feminine voice that never fail to raise her voice against the fundamentalist forces of
Pakistan. It is really very complicated than it appears to be a woman in very strict patriarchal society and
even it becomes more complex when a woman belongs to a minority community because religious oppression
is very common in Pakistan, as Sidhwa describes through Zareen, she admits:

Could you imagine Feroza cycling to school now? She‟d be a freak! Those goondas would
make vulgar noise and bump into her, and the mullahs would make vulgar noises and bump
into her, and the mullahs would tell her to cover her head. Instead of moving forward, we
are moving backward. What I could do in ‟59 and ‟60, my daughter can‟t do in 1978! Our
Parsee children in Lahore won‟t know how to mix with Parsee kids in Karachi or Bombay.
(11)

These issues of suppression of women is very common in Pakistan, it is not only because of the patriarchal
domination culture but also it is deeply rooted into the institutions of the country that also took very active
part in this sort of suppression of the women, even the National Geographic portal discusses all this in its
“The rising voices of women in Pakistan” where Su claims:

Women themselves disagree over what their role should be in Pakistani society. The
patriarchal, conservative mainstream dismisses feminism as a Western idea threatening
traditional social structures. Those who advocate for equality between women and men – the
heart of feminism – are fighting an uphill battle. They face pushback from the state,
religious institutions, and, perhaps most jarringly, other women. (Su)

Volume XIII Issue II FEBRUARY 2020 Page No: 255

JAC : A Journal Of Composition Theory ISSN : 0731-6755

It is not very difficult to understand that in a male dominant country women are often at the mercy of their
males in the family; that make them feel like a third grade citizen who have to struggle on everyday basis
even for their basic rights and respect as Sidhwa quotes, “Even Ayah and the sweeper‟s wife asked, „What
are these women’s right?‟” similarly The Atlantic quotes, “With female literacy at 36%, many women are too
uneducated to know their rights” even further more it claims, “Many rapes go unreported as the victim fears
she will become worthless in Pakistani society”(Jamal). The existence of women in Pakistan is not more than
a patty thing as Zareen feels in a social gathering at Punjab and Gymkhana clubs:

Since the men didn‟t drink after dinner, the food was served late – around mid-night. The
resentful wives sustained themselves on juices, sodas, and soup until then. Like Zareen,
they felt they were forced to cheaper-one their men on an endless round of evening binges.
(12)

But the success of women like Benazir Bhutto and Bapsi Sidhwa are the embodiment of the change that may
be appearing in Islamic fundamentalist Pakistan. Sidhwa was so fascinated when Bhutto elected the Prime
minister of Pakistan; as she describes:

For the first time I felt it didn‟t matter that I was not a Muslim, or that I was a woman. (11)

Sidhwa‟s life in Pakistan is no different than any other woman living in conservative Pakistan, they are
striving to get even chances, proper education and the most important hope for a better future; as Sidhwa
describes through Zareen, who is much concern about the future of her loving daughter Feroza in this fanatic
atmosphere, as Cyrus tells to his wife Zareen, “She probably feels she has to conform, be like her Muslim
friends. There are hardly any Parsee girls her age. She wants you to be like her friends‟ mothers, that‟s
all”(12). But Zareen is not ready to surrender to this madness of her teen daughter Feroza to dress like a
Muslim woman, as an independent woman she rebels:

If you think I‟m going to cater to this… this mullah-ish mentality… I‟ll dress the way my
mother dresses, and I‟ll dress the way my grandmothers dressed! And no one‟s ever called
the Junglewalla women indecent! (13)

Though Zareen as a woman is much confident and independent in her opinions and outlooks but it is not with
all the women in Islamic Republic of Pakistan, even Hashmi is quoting in his research, he describes:

Women are the hardest hit social group in Pakistan since last five decades. They are being
marginalized at the very least and actually victimized in a worst case scenario in the name
of Sharia laws. Over the ages women, along with other ethnic and religious groups, have
been subjected to treatment that has induced doubt, confusion, cynicism, and despair among
such abused groups.(Hashmi)

Being a woman in Islamic Republic of Pakistan in itself a mammoth challenge due its religious identity and
fanatic thinking. Even in the 21st century they are on margin of the existence as The Atlantic discusses the
plight of being women in Pakistan in “To Be a Woman in Pakistan: Six Stories of Abuse, Shame, and
Survival”, Zara Jamal claims:

According to a 2011 poll of experts by the Thomson Reuters Foundation Poll, Pakistan is the
third most dangerous country for women in the world. It cited the more than 1,000 women
and girls murdered in "honor killings" every year and reported that 90 percent of Pakistani
women suffer from domestic violence. (Jamal)

Zareen as a mother do not want it to be happened with her loving daughter Feroza, and make all the
arrangements to send her daughter to America to her brother Manek. But it was not an easy task for Feroza
to cope with a brand new way of living, but somehow she makes it up with the help of her uncle and her close
friend Jo; and soon a brand new Feroza appears to the horizon:

Volume XIII Issue II FEBRUARY 2020 Page No: 256

JAC : A Journal Of Composition Theory ISSN : 0731-6755

Feroza‟s Pakistani outfits and outrageously dangling earrings were banished to her suitcase
and her wardrobe replenished by another pair of jeans to supplement the pair she had
purchased at Bloomindale‟s and some T-shirts, sweaters, and blouses. (151)

But each change made her more complex in her emotional understandings, the problem of right and wrong,
good and evil started haunting her consciousness, and sometimes it is schizophrenic to remain a Pakistani in
USA, so as her mother Zareen feels:

While Feroza was groping to understand America through her friend and her friend was
beginning to grasp the reality of a world that existed outside America, an American in
Pakistan, in an unexpected encounter, filled Zareen‟s heart with fear and loathing. (172)

But soon it becomes more complex for both mother and daughter, when Feroza decided to get married with
and American Jew David; this mix-marriage for a Parsi is a great concern for their about to vanish
community and “Parsee were a gravely endangered species” (268). For Zareen it is a matter of prime concern
due to non-acceptance of mix-marriages in her faith and it is more worsen in the case of woman, as Zareen
remembers:
Parsee girls are not allowed into the fire temple once they marry out. You know what
happened to Perin Powari. (269)

Zareen remembered how Powari‟s last rites were refused to performed by the Parsi Priests. Zareen knew all
the consequences that a woman has to face if they “marry a parjat”(271); women are simply out casted from
the faith and even not allowed to join even a community gathering but men are simply been accepted now;
yet women are still facing the gender discrimination so Zareen reminds Feroza:

You sound almost as if you‟ve converted! My dear, your judge‟s marriage will make no
difference to the Priests. They won‟t allow you into any of our places of worship, agyari or
Atash Behram. (278)

And by all her pernicious ways Zareen got succeed to turn Feroza‟s mind off from the will to get married
with an American Jew, and it is a melting period for Feroza; and when she returned to America Feroza
broods, “She was a misfit in a country in which she had once fitted so well” (238) but after all she has to live
with all she accumulated; and may be in such a complex world with such marginality of womanhood for
Feroza “there would be no going back for her” (317), but it is still very hard for Feroza to accept the break up
with David, as she contemplates:

Her break up with David still hurt so much, especially the circumstances surrounding the
break. If she flew and fall again, could she pick herself up again? Maybe one day she‟d soar
to that self-contained place from which there was no falling, if there was such a place. (317)

But for her mother Zareen it is hard to understand what went wrong with her plan to send her daughter
America that changed Feroza completely, once she want her to be independent but when Feroza became
confident she wants her to be more religious, but now for her Feroza becomes more American than American
is. Zareen thinks:

I should have listened. I should never have let you go so far away. Look what it‟s done to you
– you‟ve become an American Brat! (279)

It is truly more complex to understand the problem of existence and identity crisis of women all around and
their marginality within the social fiber of present time. I would like to conclude all my arguments with
Sidhwa‟s brooding statement that comes from her feministic soul and unshakeable confidence which could be
the real inspiration for all her fellow feminine spirits to fly with their wings of faith, as she quotes:

What Eve tested, the bitter and the sweet, and discover the places you can fly to and fall
from. And once you‟re no longer afraid to fall, away you‟ll soar – up, up, to where you need
never fall! (117)

Volume XIII Issue II FEBRUARY 2020 Page No: 257

JAC : A Journal Of Composition Theory ISSN : 0731-6755

REFERENCES
Hashmi, Arshad Masood. “THE IMPURE WOMAN (MARGINALITY AND DETACHMENT
IN THE POETRY OF KISHWAR NAHEED)”. Asian Journel of Multidisciplinary
Studies, Vol. 2, No. 3 (2014).
http://www.ajms.co.in/sites/ajms2015/index.php/ajms/article/view/208. Accessed on 15
Dec. 2019.

Jamal, Zara. “To Be a Woman in Pakistan: Six Stories of Abuse, Shame, and Survival”.
Published on April 9, 2012.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/04/to-be-a-woman-in-pakistan-
six-stories-of-abuse-shame-and-survival/255585/. Accessed on 13 Dec. 2019.

Sidhwa, Bapsi. An American Brat. New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 1994.

Su, Alice. “The rising voices of women in Pakistan”. PUBLISHED February 6, 2019.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2019/02/the-rising-voices-of-women-in-
pakistan/. Accessed on 15 Dec. 2019.

Volume XIII Issue II FEBRUARY 2020 Page No: 258