Moving narratives
Belu Maheshwari

And the World Changed: Contemporary Stories by Pakistani Women
Ed. Muneeza Shamsie. Women Unlimited.
Pages 288. Rs 350.

English literary writings have found their niche in India and have also gained international recognition. It comes as a pleasant surprise that women writers from Pakistan have also developed strong narratives, permeated by a consciousness of herself as an educated Muslim woman and as a feminist.

This is a seminal work of modern English fiction by women of Pakistani origin, from elite backgrounds . Some are expatriates who have been exposed to Western cultures and their sensibilities sharpened by the interchange of culture. Most of these stories also have a prescriptive dictum that the work of women writers must have an extra literary purpose, that of serving society and highlight women-related issues.

These stories are contemporary and deal with varied issues ranging from loneliness, abuse, purdah, arranged marriages to cross-cultural mating. The writings find expression from the late 1970s when Pakistan was witnessing a political crackdown and increasing Islamisation through the promulgation of Hudood laws, which put rape at par with adultery.

Women activists broke tradition to write on issues like polygamy, talaq, purdah, and marriageable age for women. From these writings emerged short stories and passages.

One of the well known names is Bapsi Sidhwa who is better known as the author of Ice Candy Man. A passage from a novel, Crow Eater, titled the Arsonist, takes a dig at the attitudes, customs and rituals that constrain women. An expatriate like Rukhsana Ahmad has given women from the subcontinent a voice in Britain. Her story, Meeting the Sphinx, is part of the anthology. It questions the preconceived notions of women.

The permeability of language country and culture runs through the work of several writers. The America-based Tahira Naqvi has written A Fair Exchange through the medium of dream sequences, repressed and unidentified emotions of contemporary women. Two stories deal with the dichotomy of arranged marriage and the aspiration of British-Asian girls.

A Pair of Jeans describes the schisms, which open when Pakistani in-laws see their future daughter-in-law in jeans and boots. The other end of the spectrum is depicted in Runaway Truck Ramp, a love story of a Pakistani student and an American girl, their clash of cultures and love finding its own space.

Hina Raza gives us a beautiful story whose prose has a lyrical quality. The solitude of a woman who contemplates her own thwarted relationship and those of her friends and family is presented well.

Sara Suleri Goodyear effortlessly weaves her story between different continents and countries. It is about loss, reclamation, and memories of her sister and mother who were victims of hit-and-run accidents in Lahore.

Patriarchal structures are universal, whatever the language, race, nation or creed, and these are brought out in Bloody Monday by a US-based writer of Pakistani origin. The story suggests a multitude of subtexts on gender, myth and text.

Myths, legends and folktales have played an important role in defining gender roles. The literary discourse tries to, at times, re-examine them and reclaim matriarchal narratives. A couple of stories are from this genre. Another dominant theme of quest in its varying forms is a recurring thread in these stories.

Even political events find mention, so does the clash of civilisations. Humera Afridi’s story, The Price of Hubris, set in New York on 9/11, describes a Pakistani woman’s crisis of self in a suddenly hostile city.

One of the most poignant stories, The Daughters of Aai, is by Fahmida Riaz. The allegory of killing a chicken has been used to describe the state of a mentally challenged woman being impregnated. And how the village women rally around her and show solidarity.

The ravages of war and its repercussion on the silent majority of women is the liet motif of Roshni Rustomji’s, Existing at the Center, Watching from the Edges Mandalas. The revolting slaughter of human beings and the earth in the name of God, truth, revenge and justice. Wars remind me of age-old hauntings ,begging to be exorcised from the body of our planet. The image of the little girl carrying the bag of food over her shoulder ironically brings out the destruction caused by war yet the hope of peace.

This anthology of short stories showcases some of the finest literary writings by women of Pakistan. There have been individual stories of successes but English language writing by Pakistani women as a body of work is not widely known. This anthology breaks that silence and explores through fiction the creative power of Pakistani women, their work, their challenges, the stereotypes imposed on them as women and writers by the patriarchal culture of countries both in the diaspora and in Pakistan.

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