Analysis Of Shame: Analyze The Factor Of Sex Equality Problem

Analysis of “Shame”
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Analysis of “Shame”
Many post-colonial era narratives focus on western countries and their colonies, with little focus on the Islamic countries. Salman Ahmed Rushdie "Shame" presents a satirized political and social system of Pakistan during post-colonial era. Published in 1983, Shame by Rushdie highlights shameful consequences of trauma witnessed during the partition of India in 1947. Rushdie talks about the political scenario of Pakistan portraying rulers and suffering of masses especially, women at the hands of these rulers.
Shame is written in a magic realism portraying the lives of Iskander Harappa and General Raza Hyder relationship. Shame setting is based on a town called Q, a fictitious version of a town in Pakistan. The story revolves around Raza Hyder and his wife Bliquis. Iskander Harappa who was at some point the president marries Rani, Raza's cousin. Raza has two daughters Sufiya and Naveed. Sufiya is mentally challenged. Raza has political ambitions and eventually overthrows Iskander through a coup to become the president for a while. The birth of Omar Khayam Shakil by the three Shakil sisters forms the major theme of the story, shame. The whole story revolves around politics, family, and marriage.
The Shakil sisters are forced by the strict societal regulations to pretend that they had all given birth to Omar. While in reality, one of the sisters engaged in an illicit affair with a white man. Omar true identity is a secret. Omar stays isolated but later enrolls in school and becomes a doctor. Because of his profession, he meets General Raza Hyder.
Omar Khayyam Shakil was the doctor of Raza's daughter, Sufiya who has a mental problem that the family feels ashamed of. Omar while caring for her, he falls in love with Sufiya. The author portrays Omar as a redeemer because he was supposed to save Sufiya by removing her shame when he married her.
However, even after getting married, Sufiya becomes uncontrollable; he kills and rapes four boys. Raza and Omar work together to control her daughters' situation. The two men agree to inject Sufiya by making her unconscious and hiding her in the attic. The fact that Sufiya is referred to as a wrong miracle because both her mother and father was expecting the first born to be male shows how women suffer right from birth.
The theme shame and shamelessness are explored through several characters mainly how the role of Raza and Bliqius is portrayed in the story. Shame also present sex equality problem in the Islamic world and its impacts, showing how different women suffer the shame and burden caused by an unequal political system in the country by then. In the story shame, Rushdie uses native women the three Shakil sisters to describe the social problems facing many women in Pakistan. He shows the complex relationship among women struggling to live up to the societal expectations.
Bliquis is portrayed as an archetypal migrant whose past in India disappears in flames,...