WOMEN AGAINST SOCIO-CULTURAL PATRIARCHY AS PRESENTED IN ‘LIHAAF’ AND ‘THAT LONG SILENCE’

Abstract

Over the decades, the concept of Feminism has amassed debate, disagreements and after a lot of failed attempts came to establish for itself a rigid identity. The voices of women remained unheard until recent times. The society is accustomed to seeing things one way and thus they strategically camouflage identities as per their convenience. The patriarchy has throughout propagated that women should submit themselves to men and depend on them. But bold women writers such as Ismat Chughtai and Shashi Deshpande are mouthpieces to the assigned role and first choice (or the only choice) of women. In their stories Lihaaf and That Long Silence respectively the writers have tried to direct towards the pivotal components of life i.e. the society and the self.

Society’s pressure hasn’t allowed women to be treated at par with many in any sphere of human activity. Society’s hostility towards women also leads to the perpetual practice of subordinating the self in both cases. Thus, in pleasing the society the latter effect comes as trespassing the social periphery. The protagonists of both these stories have been presented as victims struggling against social taboos and attempting to assert their identity and individuality. Both the protagonists are victims of ignorance and non-fulfillment at the hands of their husbands, but what stands different is the way in which they resort to these setbacks.

This paper is an attempt to present how the women protagonists annihilate the societal norms and the language used by writers plays an important part in displaying the struggles of one gender. Also, this study is an attempt to see how these women address the concept of the self in terms of wives who glorify their identity despite of living in a conventional patriarchal society. The study questions the society that plays a crucial role in oppressing women by denying them their fundamental rights.