Unit 2

Short story
• The creative writings of Pakistani female artists are, very often,
grounded within the sociocultural context of Pakistani society.
• Their stories represent ‘livid experiences’ of women of a patriarchal
culture where masculinity and its attributes receive more normative
value as compared to femininity and its attributes.
• the knowledge and
understanding you get when you have personally lived through
something.
Thus, their works often depict a transition from their host cultures to
their native culture reflecting acute consciousness of material
conditions of Pakistani society.
Some of the finest creative works of Pakistani female writes are set in
intercultural settings and highlight the issues of displacement, identity
crises, clash between cultural values of native and host regions.
.
2.1 The Bull and the She Devil

• Zaib Un Nissa Hamidullah is one of the most prominent figures on the canvas of short story
writings in Pakistan.
• Rightfully, she is a highly acclaimed and celebrated figure for producing short stories of great
literary merit.
• She was not only a literary genius but also had full command on English language.
• Being the daughter of an English mother, she used English language for the expression of her
literary talent with the mastery of a native speaker..
• Her father served in the judicial services of India, a native of Bengal who is often linked to
producing writings which sparked the idea of Bengali nationalism.
• Though, she grew in Calcutta in 1920 but was very well acquainted with rustic life owing to her
frequent visits to his father’s village in Bengal and later on she developed more contact with the
rustic life because of her husband’s postings at various villages of Punjab.
• Her close contact with the countryside not only provided her literary impetus but also
influenced her creative talent and often finds reflection in her poetry and fiction writings
• After the partition of India, she moved to Karachi.
• Hamidullah expressed her intellectual abilities and creative talent in
various ways.
• Besides writing fiction and poetry, she enjoys the privilege of being
first woman columnist of Pakistan and wrote columns for Pakistan’s
leading English newspaper Dawn.
• She represented Pakistan at the United Nations.
• Though, she produced several poetry collections before and after partition
including but not limited to ‘Lotus Leaves (1946) and ‘The Flute of Memory
(1946)’ but it was her collection of short stories ‘The Young Wife (1958)’ that
earned her worldwide recognition and critical acclaim.
•
• Her short story collection ‘The Young Wife’ contains many short stories of great
artistic appeal, however, it is the ‘The Bull and the She Devil’ which is the most
celebrated one.
• This finest of Hamidullah’s tale deals with the tabooed subject of sexuality which
is a unique instance of its own kind especially during the times when it was
created (Shamsie, 1998).
•‘
• ‘The Bull and the She Devil’ is a finest reflection of patriarchal social
order of a conservative society.
• The story reveals societal consciousness and perception of Pakistani
society regarding gender norms, attributes, values and behaviour.
• The story is deeply grounded within the societal consciousness
conservative Pakistani society which is established on gendered
dichotomies.
• The story has serious social and cultural relevance and highlights the
aspect of suppressed sexuality.
•
• The story is written in a very simple style but never fails to grip attention
of the reader because of its captivating narrative style.
•
• The story gives us an insight into inner psychological working of
Ghulam Qadir who is overpowered by male supremacist ego but his
subaltern wife has gripped his psyche and overpowered him.
• He uses the metaphor of ‘She Devil’ for her as she seems to have cast
a spell on him. She has bewitched not only him but his family
members as well as bull. His masculine rage cannot withstand her
sweet smile and soft whisper.
• To him, she seems to be an utter devil incarnation, a bad woman who is not
worthy of love and respect but needs to be controlled.
• He wants to assert his authority and establish that he is the master but in vain.
• In a fit of intense anger, he creates a terrible scene of violence and bloodshed to
assert his authority and control but achieves only a state of sheer dismay.
• He is troubled by his loathsome reflection in the clear water of the well, jumps
into it and drowns.
• Ghulam Qadir, enthralled by his wife’s irresistible charm, is threatened of
her revolt against the patriarchal order.
• Though, he exerts his lawful right on her body but wants to win her soul.
• He is consumed by the thoughts of possessing his wife which seems to be
the primary purpose of his life and he is oblivious of mere thought of her
betrayal.
• Overpowered by his masculine desires, he wants her to surrender herself
and soul in complete obedience.
• Hamidullah, very artistically, unmasks societal perception of masculinity
and its normative behaviour.
• He is free to express his sensual desires whereas the wife is required to suppress her
sexuality.
• The lexical choice of ‘body’ reveals his philosophy of treating his wife as a mere object
and not as an individual in her own right and capabilities.
• Instead of being appreciative of her wife’s kind behaviour with his brother, nephew and
the bull, Ghulam Qadir harbours feelings of envy and jealousy.
• He wants to be centre of her attraction and does not want her to deal with anybody
else with love and tender care.
• Lexical terms which are used to describe actions of Ghulam Qadir depict him as an
aggressive and assertive being but inside his heart he longs for a truly unrivalled
companionship.
• Detailed description of his wife’s appearance reveal the idea that women are treated
as a mere object which has sensual appeal only.
2 Shadows

• Tahira Naqvi was born and brought up in Pakistan, but later she
moved to the United States after her marriage.
• She began her career as a translator of Pakistani Urdu fiction, ‘to
form a connection with Pakistan… her extensive translations include
in particular, the pioneering, fiercely feminist writings of Ismat
Chaghtai… her stories provide insights into women’s lives and their
suppressed emotions’ (Shamsie, 2017:494).
• Her bilingual background often reflects in her English fiction.
• Naqvi is credited with the publication of two collections of short stories ‘Attar of
Roses and Other Stories (1997)’, followed by ‘Dying in Another Country (2001)’.
• Her stories address the issues which have social and cultural relevance. She
often challenges societal schemata and gender stereotypes through her writings.
• The major issues addressed by her selected stories are related to the practice of
veiling and critique of its effectiveness when men are not trained to ‘lower their
gaze’, abusive matrimonial relationships, ideal feminine beauty image,
superstitious beliefs of the society, broken families, desirability of a male child
and matrimonial loyalty, etc.
• Shadows highlights the problems faced by girls in getting married,
on the account of not coming up to the societal standards of beauty.
• Marium is in early thirties, all of her younger cousins have got
married, her mother hires a match maker for her but the struggle
seems to be futile as she does not possess basic essentials of ideal
beauty image.
• Having realized futility of her mother’s efforts, Marium’s self-esteem
shatters greatly.
• This situation affects her self-image negatively.
• Finally, she decides to apply cosmetics to conceal her dark complexion and to enhance
her features.
• When she enters the drawing room to serve tea and greet her prospective in laws, the
guests are startled and horrified by a mask like face meant for grotesque.
• The story provides a finest critique of unrealistic yet ideal feminine beauty image
constructed by the society.
• The discourses produced by various societal institutions of socialization highlight the
significance of this aspect of female image.
• Beauty is perceived to be ‘value laden’ which enhances femininity. It has been perceived as a
kind of ‘social capital’.
• Naqvi, very skillfully, highlights the idea that ideal
beauty image is inherently discriminatory in nature as
it puts a significant proportion of female population
on a disadvantaged end.
• Though, the protagonist of her story is a competent teacher of
mathematics who can solve complex mathematical problems in
seconds.
• However, she is unable to solve the biggest problem of her existence.
She undergoes moments of intense emotional and psychological
suffering not because of illogical societal expectations.
• Feminist scholars are constantly engaged in critiquing all such
discourses which promote the ideal beauty image as an asset.
• Advertising discourses are frequently scrutinized to explore their role in
stereotyping and promoting ideal beauty image. Advertising discourses
are
• Naqvi also unmasks societal ideologies regarding gender norms, values, attributes
and behaviour.
• The story also reveals that our society, at large, is obsessed with getting their
daughters married as early as possible.
• Though, the times are changing now and female education is often prioritized,
however, the story is embedded in a cultural context where female education was
not deemed necessary and it was often compromised on the expense of getting
daughters married.
• This is evident through Naqvi’s narrative; a younger cousin of Marium is not allowed
to complete her education on the pretext of her marriage and she has no regrets.
• When Marium witnesses her happiness after her marriage, she thinks she is born
to rule owing to her beauty
Simple Questions

• Talat Abbasi, one of the best English fiction writers of Pakistan, was born
and brought up in Karachi.
• She graduated from London School of Economics, joined USA
Population Fund and has been living there since 1978.
• Abbasi’s only collection ‘Bitter Gourd and other Stories (2001)’ turns an
unforgiving gaze at inequalities of class and gender, ‘she is a very fine
short story writer indeed and often she employs, to great advantage, an
unremitting stream-of- consciousness narrative’ (Shamsie, 2017:497).
• Her stories reveal the harsh realities of the Pakistani society with much
mastery and skill.
• The major themes of her selected short stories include troublesome
matrimonial relationships, undefeatable spirit of women,
disempowered status of women in the society, lack of trust and
loyalty in married couples and fundamental questions related to
material existence of the women, etc.
• Simple Questions is the story of a housewife who nurtures five daughters,
sustains an ongoing pregnancy, attends to sick husband and faces an
abusive mother in law, she makes her elder daughter to stay at home,
owing to her poor economic situation, instead of going to school and help
her in household chores, however, when challenged by the teacher to
reconsider her decision, she poses some questions to her about the
potential utility of education as a liberating force. The teacher, unable to
answer her questions, flees from the situation leaving the destitute wife
on her own.
• The protagonist of the story is a resilient woman who manages to
survive in the adverse environment.
• Her miseries are multiplied by the reality of her material existence.
She is always in a state of intense psychological and emotional
suffering.
• She faces multidimensional challenges which are not only economic
but also social and cultural ones.
• Upon the birth of her every daughter, her mother in law makes her bear
the consequences.
• Every granddaughter is termed as ‘a fresh worry from head to toe’.
Instead of showing solidarity, she makes matters worse for her.
• Her husband has limited resources so she does not send one of her
daughters to school.
• When her teacher visits to refrain them from doing so and highlights
reformative value of education. She asks her a few simple questions
which turn out to the highly complex ones.
• . For her, if education cannot provide a suitable life partner, dowery and a
son, then she does not believe it to be a liberating force.
• Through her simple narrative, Abbasi ponders on one of the complex
notions of survival conditions of females in Pakistani conservative society.
• The fate of a woman in Pakistani society is not determined by the factors
like her intellectual capabilities and her talent but by her survival
conditions like whether or not she has found a suitable match as a life
partner, whether or not she is blessed by a male child and whether or not
her parents are wealthy enough to provided her a complete package of
dowery items on her wedding.
•2
The Zemindar’s Wife

•x
• Qaisra Shahraz, a Pakistani born, diasporic writer currently resides in
UK. This prolific writer has received international acclaim for an
unparallel quality of her work.
• Shahraz uses the elements of nostalgia of the homeland and her
diasporic identity to depict both cultures and ‘confrontation
between old and new, male and female, east and the west’ (Shaw,
2005: 3).
•x
• Her first collection of stories ‘A Pair of Jeans & Other Stories (2013)’
contains many prize winning stories and the title story has been
included in the syllabus of some western universities.
• Her work is marked by a strong sense of feminist consciousness, she
usually presents the theme of feminism within ‘the experience of
migration, settlement, racism and ethnic identity in a hostile society’
(Hussain, 2005: 132).
The Zemindar’s Wife

• Her short stories address the issues of ideal feminine beauty image, unjust treatment of the
women by the men of their family, abusive matrimonial relationships, differential societal
attitudes towards sexual transgression of men and women and the superstitious beliefs of the
society, etc.
• Her stories, also, depict the Muslim women living in the west and struggling with the issue of
identity crises.
• Though, the fiction she produced is grounded in different cultural contexts but the condition of
women is almost the same since they are subjected to the same measures of patriarchy,
gendered stereotypes and culturally distorted versions of religion, etc.
• The story, ‘Zemindar’s Wife’, begins with wonderful feelings of
excitement , since the villagers have been invited at a grand feast by
their feudal lord, the Zemindar, Sarfraz Jehangir, following the
century old custom of his ancestors.
• Women are particularly happy since they will have rare glimpse of
their youthful and beautiful Chaudharani the Zemindar’s wife, as a
wonderful climax to good feasting.
• Somehow, Chaudharani comes to know that the villagers are deprived of
the deeds and documents of their land ownership and these are in the
possession of her husband, she hands those documents over to the
villagers on the eve of Eid ul Fiter without seeking prior consent of her
husband.
• She is fully prepared to face her husband but he does not spoil
matrimonial bliss and ignores her action.
• Her female characters are hardly stereotypical in nature. She portrays very
strong female characters who resist oppressive societal conditions to realize
their full potential. Zemindar’s wife is one such magnificent representation.
Noor, Zemindar’s Wife, is blessed with charismatic beauty image everyone
wants to behold. Ideal femi Her female characters are hardly stereotypical
in nature. She portrays very strong female characters who resist oppressive
societal conditions to realize their full potential. Zemindar’s wife is one such
magnificent representation. Noor, Zemindar’s Wife, is blessed with
charismati Her female characters are hardly stereotypical in nature. She
portrays very strong female characters who resist oppressive societal
conditions to realize their full potential. Zemindar’s wife is one such
magnificent representation.
• Noor, Zemindar’s Wife, is blessed with charismatic beauty image everyone wants to behold. Ideal feminine beauty is perceived as a social capital in
conservative Pakistani society. Surprisingly, her husband is not threatened by her compelling beauty rather he takes pride in showcasing her to let
the world know how lucky he is to possess such a beautiful woman. Noor’s appeal is further heightened by realizing the fact that she is not only
highly qualified but also has a very strong family background. All these characteristic features combine to render her a unique kind of power not
only in the domestic affairs but also in matrimonial relationship. In patriarchal social order, family head is a male who takes all decisions but in the
case of Noor, she exerts more power and asserts her agency and control. c beauty image everyone wants to behold. Ideal feminin Her female
characters are hardly stereotypical in nature. She portrays very strong female characters who resist oppressive societal conditions to realize their
full potential. Zemindar’s wife is one such magnificent representation. Noor, Zemindar’s Wife, is blessed with charismatic beauty image everyone
wants to behold. Ideal feminine beauty is perceived as a social capital in conservative Pakistani society. Surprisingly, her husband is not threatened
by her compelling beauty rather he takes pride in showcasing her to let the world know how lucky he is to possess such a beautiful woman. Noor’s
appeal is further heightened by realizing the fact that she is not only highly qualified but also has a very strong family background. All these
characteristic features combine to render her a unique kind of power not only in the domestic affairs but also in matrimonial relationship. In
patriarchal social order, family head is a male who takes all decisions but in the case of Noor, she exerts more power and asserts her agency and
control. e beauty is perceived as a social capital in conservative Pakistani society. Surprisingly, her husband is not threatened by her compelling
beauty rather he takes pride in showcasing her to let the world know how lucky he is to possess such a beautiful woman. Noor’s appeal is further
heightened by realizing the fact that she is not only highly qualified but also has a very strong family background. All these characteristic features
combine to render her a unique kind of power not only in the domestic affairs but also in matrimonial relationship. In patriarchal social order,
family head is a male who takes all decisions but in the case of Noor, she exerts more power and asserts her agency and control.
• She nine beauty is perceived as a social capital in conservative Pakistani society. Surprisingly, her husband is not threatened by her compelling
beauty rather he takes pride in showcasing her to let the world know how lucky he is to possess such a beautiful woman. Noor’s appeal is further
heightened by realizing the fact that she is not only highly qualified but also has a very strong family background. All these characteristic features
combine to render her a unique kind of power not only in the domestic affairs but also in matrimonial relationship. In patriarchal social order,
family head is a male who takes all decisions but in the case of Noor, she exerts more power and asserts her agency and control.