![]() ![]() The status of women in Pakistan varies considerably across classes, regions and rural-urban divide due to uneven socioeconomic development and the impact of tribal, feudal and capitalist social formations on women s lives. Herein an exploration of the same will be analyzed through the fictional discourses of Tehmina Durrani. They use various channels of women s life in order to portray the marginality of women. These women characters evolve gradually through the process of psychological development from a suffering, weeping and 194Ĥ subaltern woman to a confident and independent one. Pakistani writers emphasize this factor in their fiction through the precarious conditions women are placed in. This ignited the process of mental freedom though the bodies are still colonized by men. But the same has brought also modern day realities to the forefront along with a new consciousness for women. Women, as in the past, were supposed to carry the burden of cultural values as an offshoot of post colonialism. The postcolonial men re-colonised the bodies and minds of their women as a reaction and in efforts to preserve their cultural values. The Muslim and Hindu religious code of conduct have further contributed in making the taboos stronger. This subaltern status dates back to the past traditions of this subcontinent. They are colonized and declared to be others and silent majority (subalterns). Women writers invariably show that women find themselves on the horned dilemma in their daily transactions. They are also depicted as subaltern, as marginalized by social taboos in the dominant patriarchal system reigning supreme in Pakistan. They are portrayed mostly as round characters which are initially bound and restrained by the chain of customs and traditions. Women in Pakistani fiction, however, have been shown constantly changing and developing. These roles are partly traditional and partly modern day realities women invariably face there. Pakistani women writers have portrayed the 193ģ lives of Pakistani women under the imposed role of religious, social and economic parameters. Feminist discourses and the discourses of the marginalized constitute an important part of this larger body of literature. It has, in fact, inherited all the pros and cons of the fiction in India before the end of the colonial rule in the subcontinent. Pakistani fiction is the continuation and extension of the fiction produced under the colonial rule in India. Even this system, seen carefully, doubly puts women in the straitjackets as indicated by W. A critique of the feudal system is another signifying feature of Durrani. She is especially selected here because she offers a different version of women s predicament in a cultural context characterised by false notion of religion and unmindful application of the false beliefs on daily social and personal demeanor and also because Tehmina Durrani writes a bitter critique of the exploitation of common people, especially women, by imposing superstitious belief. Tehmina Durrani is selected for exploration in this study not only because she shares a certain common ground with her Indian counterparts in terms of their treatment of women s marginalization. She occupies a prominent place amongst those contemporary Pakistani women writers who are constantly engaged in raising their voices against the ruthless marginalization of women, and also against the murderous patriarchal social structures. ![]() 1 Chapter IV TEHMINA DURRANI: BREAKING THE SILENCE 192Ģ Tehmina Durrani is one of the widely discussed Pakistani women writers in particular and continental women writers in general. ![]()
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