Shame

In the novel Shame by Salman Rushdie the main character Sufiya Zinobia represents the second-class status of women in the nation. Bringing shame to her family simply by being born, Sufiya’s struggle as a girl and women bring to light the misogynistic nature of a Pakistani society where the word woman has many negative connotations such as weakling, shameful, and foolish (Rushdie, 58). Sufiya is supposed to be a representation of all of the terrible attitudes about women and the violent and humiliating actions taken out against them and of the women’s response to their plight. As Pakistan tries to establish itself as a country and a people the women in the nation experience the same problem that plagues many cultures after they attain their freedom: “Men and women experience national liberation differently…women do not reap equal benefits from decolonization for reasons of gender inequality” (McLeod, 137). In this type of society nothing that Sufiya could do in her life would make her anything but a disappointment and the traditional role of a Pakistani woman does not allow her the same opportunities afforded to men. The women of Pakistan carry the burden of internalized misogynistic self-hate yet also realize that the system and culture are wrong and have the extra burden of feeling shame for their nation as well as themselves. Sufiya’s blushing represents this sentiment well: “Sufiya Zinobia Hyder blushed uncontrollably whenever her presence in the world was noted by others. But she also, I believe, blushed for the world too” (Rushdie, 124). Sufiya’s life gives the whole world a view into Pakistani society’s treatment of woman and her plight does indeed bring shame to the nation.

This video clip is from Al Jazeera English, a news station based in Qatar that provides its audience with a non-Western perspective on global events and often features human rights stories such as the one presented above. I consider their reporting to be fairly unbiased so long as the story is not about the Qatari government and feel that they are able to criticize unjust cultural practices and injustices in other Middle Eastern and Islamic countries where I as a white American cannot. I will let the video speak for itself in showing how women in Pakistan still face institutionalized oppression from the male-dominated government and tribal authorities. It is clear that women have made social, economic, and political advancements in recent years but the second-class status of women as shown in Shame is still the daily reality for the majority of women in Pakistan.

Acid attack victim Fakhra Yunus

I had heard of acid attacks used by men in Pakistan to disfigure and shame their wives, daughters, and other relatives but before I did some reading on the topic for this blog post had no idea of how shockingly common the practice has become. It was both saddening and infuriating to scroll through the pages upon pages of pictures of women who had been assaulted in this manner. In the eyes of the men who commit these atrocities a woman without beauty has no value or redeeming qualities whatsoever and by disfiguring her he has successfully dehumanized her to her community.

Cracking India

Map of the region after Partition showing Lenny's city of Lahore on the Pakistani side of the border

Cracking India by Bapsi Sidhwa tells the story of the Partition of India by the British from the point of view of the colonized. The novel has a wide array of characters from many different religious, social, and ethnic backgrounds and is told through the point of view of Lenny, a young Parsee girl who lives in the city of Lahore. Through Lenny’s eyes the reader is able to see the country shift from one group united under foreign rule to two opposing nations, fractured along religious lines and divided by a seemingly arbitrary political border. As Partition draws nearer, the feeling of community in Lahore that was so strong for Lenny’s early childhood dissolves as the residents look to the future with uncertainty. At the beginning of the novel Lenny and her Ayah enjoy traveling around the city and interacting with people from all sorts of backgrounds. The community in Lahore is made up of Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Parsees, Christians and a whole range of social and economic classes. A place of gathering for all groups is Queen’s Park, a symbol of the British oppression that binds all of the groups of India together under their rule. The different groups are worried about what will happen once the oppression is lifted and have to weigh their groups standing in the new nation of Pakistan against maintaining the multi-cultural community they have now. As the novel goes on, Lenny starts to see many more hostile confrontations between those of different religions: A heated exchange between a British constable and a Sikh shows how the feeling of community is failing:“ if you Sikhs plan to keep your lands in Lyallpur and Montgomery, you’d better start fraternizing with the Muslim League. “If you don’t, the Muslims will throw you off your rich land”. Those of similar religions band together and withdraw from the community, there is no more sense of unity in Lahore anymore and those who were once friends and neighbors turn on each other. As a new nation is created and violence erupts, those who no longer feel like a part of the community leave everything behind in Pakistan and head to India to join their respective religious communities. As people stopped seeing those with differences as part of their community the overall community failed to exist.

The cracking of British India has created a nuclear standoff between India and Pakistan and shows why it is so important for us to view the last 65 years of Indian and Pakistani history as postcolonial rather than after colonial. The feelings of hatred and distrust between Hindus and Muslims and the resulting violence that Lenny describes in the novel persist to this day as India and Pakistan clash over control of the territory of Kashmir. Great Britain threw the region into chaos when they divided the country up and Lenny's account of the events that transpired after Partition show how little regard the British had for the people who actually lived in the two new nations. The situation in Kashmir is a direct result of the colonialist past of the region and  threatens the safety and way of life for well over a billion people.