Volume II, Issue V, September 2014

ISSN 2321-7065

Autobiography as Testimony: Truth and Fiction in Tehmina

Durranis Writings
Soumita Adhikary
Ph. Research Scholar
Deen Dayal Upadhayay Gorakhpur University
Gorakhpur

Abstract
What does a person knows better than anyone else might know? It is about ones own life.
We know about our life better than anyone else. It might seem an easy process to write about
ones own life as it involves writing what a person already knows, without any research and
fabrication. But, however apparently simple this act might seem, it is anything but simple. As
the writer pours out his/her innermost thoughts, hidden experiences, secret fantasies, family
origin etc., he/ she come under public speculation, leading to various assessment and
controversies. Leaving him/her to confront power, regulation and control in which women
usually dread to fall. Also the traditional male script for womens life was lopsided. As a
result of which, women have been deprived of the narratives, or the texts, plot, or examples
by which they might assume power over take control of their own lives (Heilbrun, 16-17).
This paper aims at exploring the autobiographical truth and fictional aspects combined
bravely by Tehmina Durrani in her writings to bring forth the unknown realities and
unspoken plight of suppressed women in the male hegemonic society.
Keywords: women, subjugation, autobiography, religious fundamentalism, male
hegemony.

http://www.ijellh.com

370

Volume II, Issue V, September 2014

ISSN 2321-7065

Elaine Showalter in her essay Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness shares, feminist critic
Mary Jacobus idea, that there is a need for womens writing which works within male
discourse but operates ceaselessly to deconstruct it : to write what cannot be written
(Showalter,334). Autobiography gives a female author the necessary space through which she
can let her unheard voice reach the world. The word autobiography is the conglomeration of
three Greek terms: auto signifies self, bio signifies life and graphy signify writing.
Taken together they mean self-life writing. Telling ones own life story is in itself an act of
self-emancipation, where one holds full control over ones life and its narration, a sign of
liberation. This genre gives the liberty of self-representation. While representing oneself
through ones life story, in Derridas words, the autobiographer tells himself this life and is
the narrations first, if not its only, addressee and destination within the text (Smith, 75).
Thus, the author hears oneself speak, in a cocooned audiophony an unique enveloped
discourse, where no sound is actually needed. Hearing oneself speak makes the author aware
of his/her presence. This self-presence makes the self bloom, bringing it alive and the
author becomes conscious of its being. This becomes helpful in cases where the author has
gone through a life of suppression, and in that process has lost ones identity, ones voices.
The reunion of the self thus helps the writer connect to self, nurturing the lost self, leading to
self- identification. A question arises here, that how one unites with the self and at the same
time unites with others through writing autobiography? Derrida in the course of investigating
the idea of self-representation; found that the ideal form of self-representation is hearing
oneself speak. This is a unique form where sound and reception of sound literally doesnt
have to take place. It is here that the cocooned audiophony constitutes the subjective. This is
what Derridas idea of the deconstruction of the metaphysics of presence entails. Presence,
above all is here self-presence, being present to the self. In the cocooned audiophony, the
writers voice passes from mouth to ear, but in the process the voice travelling from the
mouth to ear opens itself to the public, the other.

http://www.ijellh.com

371

Volume II, Issue V, September 2014

ISSN 2321-7065

OTHER

AUTHOR

Dig.: cocooned audiophony

Apart from being a sealed personal letter, dealing with personal assessments, the narration
becomes a post-card openly accessible to all and sundry. Because I address myself, but in
doing so I address you. Thus the subject I is never constant, but is prone to a continuous
change. This makes the position of the subject problematic. In the process of speaking to self,
I speak to you, in the process of addressing self, I address you. The authorial I
mingles with you as in the process of writing the author detaches himself from self and
becomes the other. The message of the author coming out of mouth gets divided; the ear
receiving the message is that of the other. In this process the vocal message reaches the
you. When the message reaches the ear of the other, it circulates. In his essay Tympan,
Derrida speaks of the tympanum, the ear drum and the other tympan of the printing press
which is a sheet placed between the impression surface of a printing press and the paper to be
printed. Thus in both cases tympan helps to circulate. The authors voice from the mouth
gets imprinted through the tympan to the other for circulation.
All through history womens voices have been suppressed, leaving them as the muted other.
While some have accepted this dominance and taken refuge into silence, others like Tehmina
Durrani, equipped themselves with art to fight against male hegemony, patriarchal
dominance and Islamic fundamentalism to assert power and control over their own lives.
Tehminas My Feudal Lord is the reflection of such an effort. She doesnt limit herself to the
revelation of her own traumatic life, but tries to bring to light the unknown dark lives of
thousands of other women leading such turbulent lives under the distorted social norms and
conditions. In Blasphemy, Tehmina advocates the plight of women who suffer under

http://www.ijellh.com

372

Volume II, Issue V, September 2014

ISSN 2321-7065

patriarchal hegemony and manipulated Islamic fundamentalism. The authors own sufferings,
her submission to the patriarchal dominance and her struggle for self-emancipation made her
realise the need to speak about the system that confines women to such pathetic life of
subjugation and confinement. She says I announced Jehad a movement to represent the
silent majority to raise controversial issues that most people feel afraid to speak about
(Durrani1995,381).
Tehmina Durrani in her autobiography My Feudal Lord begins the narration with a flashback
into her repressed childhood under various regulations and an unspoken rejection from her
mother. She suffered from her mothers rejection on the ground of her being dark and less
attractive. At home, her mother was the dominant authority. She was compelled to follow her
mothers instructions and execute them. Her mother demanded complete obedience just like
her second husband, Mustafa Khar. Struggling to please her mother, Tehmina developed a
personality that was, as she confess, against her nature. Inwardly she became confused and
sometimes ashamed (Durrani 1995, 25) about her real nature. Gradually she felt her life at
home to be claustrophobic and saw marriage as an escape from it. Thus, when Anees Khan
proposes her for marriage, she feels infatuated towards him and his attempts to woo her.
Tehmina unconsciously saw a prospect of freedom in his proposal. Later, when she emerges
from the spell of infatuation she realises that she had actually fallen in love with the concept
of love, rather with Anees Khan. As luck would have its way, Tehmina couldnt stop her
marriage with Anees and unwillingly had to marry him. John Donne in his much appreciated
poem The Good-Morrow speaks about lovers being childishly involved with the concept of
love before they actually find the one they actually desire and dream of.
I wonder, by my troth,what thou and I
Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then?
But sucked on country pleasures, childhishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers den?
Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be.
If ever any beauty I did see,

http://www.ijellh.com

373

Volume II, Issue V, September 2014

ISSN 2321-7065

Which I desired, and got, twas but a dream of thee. (Donne, 9)

Tehmina likewise was infatuated towards Anees before her soul woke up to fall for Mustafa
Khar. Due to her childhood suppression by her mother, Tehmina had always desired a strong
and authoritative male head of the family. In Anees she couldnt find a dominant
authoritative figure that she craved for and in a social gathering falls in love with Mustafa
Khar. Mustafa Khar was authoritative, conservative and overpowering (Durrani1995,39),
the qualities that attracted Tehmina towards him. He perfectly fitted into her concept of an
authoritative head. She confesses, Psychologically I had suffered from my fathers weak role
in our family. Now here was someone who presented a quite different personality (Durrani
1995, 39). When Tehmina and Mustafa fell in love, Mustafa was already married to
Shahrazad (Sherry), his fifth wife. In between her narrative, the author opens an account of
Mustafas inconsistent married life with his wives, switching from one to another. Sherry
warned Tehmina , Hes a very difficult man. I know him. You dont know him. Hes no
good for you. Hell ruin your life as hes ruined mine (Durrani 1995, 76). Gradually she
finds Sherrys warning take a real shape as soon as she marries him. He threatens her by
saying Never ever disobey me! You have to do what I tell you to do (Durrani 1995, 95).
Under such threat and dominance by Mustafa, she had to leave for London with him, after
Zulfikar Ali Bhuttos arrest. Though in London Tehmina got united with her family but her
torture under her husbands savage behaviour worsened. She was bewildered with Mustafas
split personality beating her mercilessly, tormenting her; and after the storm passing away
he would even fall on her feet to plead for mercy. With his violently possessive and
pathologically jealous character, Mustafa cut Tehmina off from the outside world. While she
bore all the physical torments and abuses; Mustafa engaged himself to fascinate and woo
Tehminas younger sister Adila. Crushing her spirit with his overpowering mettle, he
established a sexual liaison with Adila. Mustafa even kidnaps his own children to win
Tehmina back when she demands divorce. Tehmina for the sake of her children and after
Mustafas resolution to change, grants him another chance. But Mustafa doesnt keep his
promise and returns to his true savage self-torturing her. This leaves Tehmina with no other
option than to divorce him, signing away all financial support, losing the custody of her four
children and disownment from her parents.

http://www.ijellh.com

374

Volume II, Issue V, September 2014

ISSN 2321-7065

Blasphemy, inspired by a true story, reveals the evil practices foreground in the name of
Allah. Heer the protagonist falls in the trap of marriage to a corrupted religious leader Pir
Sain. Heers mother sensed the prospect of uplifting her social stand in the society by being
related to a powerful and influential person like Pir Sain, sealing her fate. With the Stepping
in into Pir Sains haveli, began Heers journey through hell. Like a bird trapped in a cage for
the masters amusement, Heer at the age of fifteen was locked in the four walls of Pir Sains
haveli as his wife. She had been indeed sacrificed to a god on earth (Durrani 1999, 39).
Enduring a strict purdah, she was confined in the four walls of the haveli. At the tender age
of fifteen she was thrust with the responsibility of the household, where a slight mistake
could call upon the wrath of Pir, at times kicking her, beating or inflicting abuses upon her.
She gradually realised that Pir was a hypocrite, who concealed his heinous crimes under the
name of Allah. The green chadder embroidered with the ninety-nine names of Allah
(Durrani 1999, 44) that Pir wore over his shoulder is symbolic. It reflects the way Pir covered
his crime and misled people in the name of the divine. He was like the lord afflicting
everyone around him with all the possible torments and suppression. Like a parasite he lived
on his wife, sons, daughters, servants and mureeds (followers). While he grew happy and
alive, others life was turned to hell. Pir sain was the devil incarnate, who camouflaged as a
religious leader. He gained money, grains, clothes and all the luxuries from his mureeds, the
worshippers of the Shrine. The Shrine and its gaddi nashin had a claim to everything that
was produced through the sweat and toil of peasants and tillers (Durrani 1999, 64). He had
put the people in an unbreakable trap. People were hypnotised by the strange light of his eyes,
and were convinced that it was the light of God. He was considered the link between people
and God himself. His followers approached him with their adversities and desires, which Pir
heard and thereafter dipped his bamboo pen into zafran ink and scribbled on little scraps of
paper blowing his sacred breath on them. These were handed to the pleader as a cure to
his/her problem. If Pirs prayers were answered, the mureed woud bring expensive gifts and
briefcases full of money in appreciation (Durrani 1999, 63) and if they went unanswered, Pir
had a series of well-constructed lines to reason with them. Heer was a silent sufferer and
observer of Pirs activities. She was in the service of the devil, from where she could never
find an escape. The only way was to bear on or wither away. It would have been less painful
for Heer to sacrifice her freedom and dignity in Pirs hand, but it gradually became
unbearable when Pirs eyes fell on her children. To protect them she had to lose her humanity

http://www.ijellh.com

375

Volume II, Issue V, September 2014

ISSN 2321-7065

and sink into heinous practices with Pir. In such turbulent circumstance she followed
escapism in memories of her childhood and of her unfulfilled love Ranjha. In such moments
she secretly prayed for Pirs death which to her horror and surprise was answered.
My Feudal Lord and Blasphemy both portray the male dominated society, where women are
subjugated a male world dominating over the female world, overshadowing it and governing
it. Surrounded with dominant constructed rules firm enough to be broken, they are governed
over by patriarchal power, exploited; undergoing physical and psychological torture to such
an extent that they become a silent bearer of pain. Then, how do these women gather strength
after being repressed, brutalised and silenced? When every aspect of womens life is
controlled by such dominant power regime, where lays the desire or fire to protest? Lets
analyse this using anthropologists Shirley and Edwin Ardeners diagram of the relation
between the dominant and the muted group.

Dig.: Ardeners diagram of the relation between dominant and muted group.
Ardener represented male and female groups as intersecting circles. In
his essays, Belief and the Problem of Women and The Problem Revisited, he named the
male group as dominant group and female group as muted group. The muted (women)
circle falls within the dominant (male) circle. But, we can see that a small crescent of Y (the
dotted area) falls outside the dominant boundary, Ardener calls this area wild. This wild
zone is womens area forbidden to men. This wild zone is the area where lies the secret
desires, cherished dreams, suppressed thoughts and feelings, the revolutionary zeal a centre
for everything that never gets acceptance in the dominant area; thus thrown outside the

http://www.ijellh.com

376

Volume II, Issue V, September 2014

ISSN 2321-7065

dominant boundary. The wild zone functions as the centre to nourish the unrequited
longings and desires. We find Tehmina Durrani nurture her wounded emotions, humiliations
and Mustafa Khars deception in this secret wild zone. The physical and mental abuse thrust
upon her although silenced by Mustafas threat, the unspoken revolt accumulated in this wild
zone. Tehmina mentions: My mind became a sanctuary for secret thoughts of escaping from
this household (Durrani 1995, 30). This portion of the authors mind is the wild zone.
In the words of Elaine Showalter: In their texts (womens), the wild zone becomes the place
for the revolutionary womens language, the language of everything that is repressed, and for
the womens writing in white ink (Lodge and Wood: 342) (mine italics). Placing Pir Sain
and Heer from Tehminas Blasphemy, into Ardeners dominant and mute diagrammatical
representation; we find that much of Heers persona (zone) fallswithin the boundaries of Pir
Sians dominance. Her life is totally governed and eclipsed by Pir Sains existence. But still
there lies a crescent zone, the wild which lay outside the dominant boundary of Pir Sain.
The situation is like an eclipse taking place; Pir (the sun) tries to overshadow Heer (the
moon), into a total lunar eclipse. But Pir is not successful because of the prominent existence
of the wild zone falling outside his area of dominance, as the suns rays can only influence
the area of the moon that face it, the other remaining dark and out of the reach of the sun.
This wild zone cannot be tread by Pir Sian because its forbidden. Ardener further says that
women know what the male cresent is like, even if they have never seen it, because it
becomes the subject of legend. But men do not know what is in the wild (Lodge and Wood:
341). Thus, we find Heer with pervasive knowledge of Pirs activities and desires whereas
her wild secret zone remains unfathomed by Pir. In this zone she longs for Ranjha ( her
childhood admirer), here she writes invisible letters to Ranjha and to her own mother, here
she nourishes her hope for freedom and here lurks the hesitating hope of Pir Sains death.
Tehmina likewise knew the secrets behind Mustafas personal and political activities which
she describes in graphic detail in her autobiographical narrative.
My Feudal Lord and Blasphemy both mirror the socio-cultural scenario in Pakistan. In My
Feudal Lord we see a picture of the feudal system. The feudal system, Tehmina writes, is a
carry-over from the time when the British ruled the whole of south central Asia (Durrani
1995, 40); through which they bestowed land and power upon selected loyal individuals.
This accumulation of power and land into a few hands led to the exploitation of the poor

http://www.ijellh.com

377

Volume II, Issue V, September 2014

ISSN 2321-7065

tenants. Thus, feudalism in such a society became a licence to plunder, rape and even
murder. The rich got richer, the poor despaired (Durrani 1995, 40). In some feudal families
Islam was used as a weapon to control the subjugated section of the society, because the
patriarchs were considered as holy men, who possessed the power to communicate with
Allah. The feudal lords were powerful enough to justify any action and could even decide
over the members to be seated in the Parliament. Possession of such powers, we find in
Mustafa Khar, who belonged to a rich feudal family and was also an eminent political figure.
He used his powers more to nurture his desires than to foster public welfare.
Through Pir Sains character Tehmina brings into focus the dark and secret lives of predatory
religious leaders who distort Islam to attain power and exploit the weak. Sain proclaimed
himself a chosen one who had the power to communicate with Allah because of his holy
ancestry. Such religious leaders are shown to be imposters, who exploit peoples ignorance,
their losses and their limitations, and their unqualified trust and faith in the powers of the
holy men to rule over them. Toti, the supernatural women who met Heer, revealed to her that
the Shrine was constructed by the British, to control the people of their area, making the
Shrine a prosperous business. Thus, Pirs were not holy descendents but trained
professionals in business, tormenting the people and making them suffer in the hell they had
created (Durrani 1999, 89). Power makes these religious leader savages feeding upon their
prey; religion being only a veil to cover up malevolence. In such hands religion is never an
instrument to reach the divine, but they try to find out which injunctions of Islam would best
suit their interest.
Womens condition in Muslim society is one of the key issues broached in My Feudal Lord
and Blasphemy. Women undergo a complex series of subjugation and are left unequipped to
plead or fight against the injustice hurled upon them. Two kinds of repressive devices operate
simultaneously upon women; Louis Pierre Althusser,the prominent French Marxist
philosopher calls them Repressive State Apparatuses (RSAs) and Ideological State
Apparatus (ISAs). RSAs contain the Government, the Administration, the military, the
police, and the judicial system whereas ISAs contain the religious and educational
institutions, the family and cultural formation. Both the apparatus constitute of such
institutions that reduce women to a subject position, without her even realising of it. Sidonie
Smith and Julia Watson opine that, Both RSAs and ISAs hail the subject who enter them,

http://www.ijellh.com

378

Volume II, Issue V, September 2014

ISSN 2321-7065

calling her to a certain subject position. In this sense she is interpellated as a certain kind of
subject through the ideology that informs and reproduces the institutions (Smith and
Watson, 21).Women are first chained through various norms and conditions through cultural
and religious boundaries, unable to move out for proper justice because the law is twisted to
serve religious fundamentalism and male hegemony.
Tehmina in her autobiography voices this vulnerable position of women who are caught in
the complex web of Muslim society. She writes A woman was like a mans land The
Koran says so, he said (Durrani 1999, 107). A land being compared to a woman is a
revealing simile, because a feudal lord or any man possessing a piece of land regards it only
in functional term. It is protected and nurtured only if it yields; if it is barren, it is neglected.
Tehmina interpreted it differently for her the land could yield in abundance only if it is
tender and cultivated. Women in such androcentric society are tended purely to serve the
master. Tehmina describes Mustafas behavior towards the pets at his home: to him, a dog
was a purely functional creature that was required to respond to his masters commands with
complete loyalty. That sounded similar (Durrani 1995, 205). Tehmina deliberately
emphasizes the familiar behavior of Mustafa over the pets; because he treated his wives
only as functional creatures and not as human being. Heer shares the same fate under Pir
Sains subjugation. She laments, he never thought of me as a human being, let alone a
women (Durrani 1999, 149).
Apart from being commodified, each action of the women is controlled by the patriarchal
head like a puppet whose strings are in the hands of a puppet master. Mustafa acted like a
puppet master in whose hands all Tehminas strings were entangled hopelessly perhaps
permanently, leading to a mess. Not only were her actions controlled, the suppression also
targeted towards the mind. Mustafa warns, I know what youre thinking, Tehmina, believe
me. You darent think anything that I have forebidden you to think about (Durrani 1995,
108). This kind of repression led to psychological disorders. Such exploited women rarely
move the law for justice because the law is designed to favor the dominant male patriarchs.
The law and the justice is in the hands of leaders like Mustafa Khar and Pir Sain -the former a
political power the later a vile embodiment of religious power, both utilizing their powers in
tandem to control and rule. Anouar Majid in his essay The Politics of Feminism in Islam
argues that The struggle in the Islamic world today is, in fact, over democratizing decision

http://www.ijellh.com

379

Volume II, Issue V, September 2014

ISSN 2321-7065

making and wresting the state from hands of regimes that have ossified religion and turned it
into a tool of political control (Saliba, et al., 63). This leads women likeTehmina to bear
Mustafas deceptions and violence only because moving the court for divorce could separate
her from her children, taking away her financial support and forcing them to face alienation
from the society. Heer was trapped in a similar situation. Heer herself couldnt approach the
court as she was forbidden to step out of the haveli. Heer express her mothers helplessness to
support her out of Sains hell, she reveals:
My mother was a widow of no influence. She had no means to fight my husbands
power. Ma could take me back through a court but she was not that spirited. She had
always compromised in favour of family honour. A scandal would kill her. The doors
that opened wide for a man slammed shut for a woman. If she fell out of grace, the
society that hated her rise to prosperity would turn upon her. She could not save me
on her own. The system was too rigid to allow for that (Durrani 1999, 74).
In such a society where a female is sentenced to purdah at birth, women struggling for
emancipation are pulled down by the dominant stake holders. Safia, Mustafas third wife was
a flight attendant, whom Mustafa marries only to leave her caged up in his ancestral home in
Kot Addu. Not only Tehmina and Heer were targeted by their respected powerful husbands,
but these powerful men inflicted pain and torture on every soul around them. Ayesha the Dai,
who was enslaved by Mustafa, practiced a silence service towards her master, accepting kicks
and abuses on slightest mistakes. Cheel, likewise, in her silent service towards Pir Sain,
indirectly bore a physical abuse, as her long, unmoving posture to keep a watch over the
haveli, led ants enter her body through her feet and rot up her body that led her painful death.
Anouar Majid endorses the prominent feminist sociologist Fatima Mernissis idea: that a
popular form of mosque-centered democracy existed during the Prophets time and that it
was the Caliphal political system that violated the early Islamic principles. Hence, depending
on how it is done, and from which ideological perspective, the recovery of an Islamic past,
thoroughly cleansed of the residue of centuries of male- dominated interpretations, can be
useful to women fighting for freedom in the Islamic world (Saliba, et al., 64). Theorist like
Mernissi show that the Shrines put up in the name of God to misguide people can be
demolished in keeping with legal provisions and thus the true guidance of Allah can be

http://www.ijellh.com

380

Volume II, Issue V, September 2014

ISSN 2321-7065

regained, giving rise to an egalitarian society. Such an effort to annihilate the shrine, that had
become a symbol of corruption rather than the sanctuary of the divine, was initiated by Heer.
Tehmina Durrani herself suffered at the hands of the dominant power regime and thus is
aware of womens horrible plight in Muslim society. It was the call of the hour to speak out,
breaking the age-long silence. Tehmina and Heer through representing their lives become
synecdoche, who stands for the whole. Their life and suffering represent the very mirror of
every woman who undergo such turbulent life and is unable to raise a voice. The genre of
autobiography, gives the writer to raise a powerful voice through the silence. The term bio
in autobiography is coming to life, rising from death or oblivion, rising from a total
negation. It is like a mimesis, to imitate, represent,re-present the self through writing. A
question arises here, that though writing autobiography gives an insight, how much of the
other it allows entering its narrative? How much of me, I reveal, how much of you, I
allow to be represented? Tehmina in her autobiography points out, that Mustafa knew the
tactics to lure, entice and entrap (Durrani1995, 41), which he learnt from his hunting
expeditions. Shikar, she says taught Mustafa courage, endurance and patience
(Durrani1995, 41), thus she calls him a shikari. She directly called him a shikari and
indirectly herself a shikar, the hunted; but was it not her, first curious to enquire about Khar
and was fascinated by him. The qualities with which she claims Mustafa made hunt, was the
very ones she was attracted to. Didnt she realize Sherrys cautious warnings about Mustafa?
Though she veils it under the impression of her being trapped, it hints somewhat towards her
incapability to hold herself. She was drawn towards him like a moth to a flame (Durrani
1995, 21). This imagery of the moth being drawn to the flame, hints at the moths irresistible
tendency to self-destruction in the trance to pursue the flame, the very flame that consumes it.
Here she herself is the embodiment of moth and Mustafa the flame incarnate which burns her
and reduces her identity, freedom and selfhood to ashes. To see Mustafa in a totally dark
shade is not possible for readers like us, who after reading between Tehminas narrative finds
her to appreciate, the same man who burns her like a flame and latter soothes her identity,
places her beside himself . Mustafa bestows Tehmina the honor to sit beside him in the car
taking her as an equal, while his brothers were indicated to seat themselves in the backseat.
Incidents like these narrated by Tehmina reflects an ambiguous portrayal of Mustafa in her
autobiography.

http://www.ijellh.com

381

Volume II, Issue V, September 2014

ISSN 2321-7065

Another question that keeps lurking when we finish reading Blasphemy, is why the novel
deals with an uncontrollable, unpalatable narrative that only make the reading experience
painful? Some readers critique Tehminas writing on the ground that she should have
practiced a more balanced narrative rather than such an emotive outpouring. To settle such
objection, we can argue that the author could have presented an uncontrolled painful
narration intentionally and deliberately. It could be the aim of the author to portray the
inhuman suppression of the muted women whose suffering and pain has no end. The author
wants the reader to feel the agony and pain that women have to bear caught in such systems.
The pain and suffering can only be felt when one goes through such experience. Tehmina
Durrani tries to bring out the pain in her description so that the reader undergoes a similar
experience of horror and recoil and in a way lives it; as he reads through the lines. The author
seems to be reminding us that If we cannot bear to read the description of violence and
torture, we can very well imagine how one bears it all in reality. This may be the motive
behind the authors unrestrained, unpalatable narration of pain, exploitation and torture.

http://www.ijellh.com

382

Volume II, Issue V, September 2014

ISSN 2321-7065

Works Cited
Althusser, Louis. (2003).On Ideology. London. Verso.
Ardener, Edwin. Belief and the Problem of Women and The Problem Revisited. p.p 1-27 in
Shirley Ardener,(1975) Perceiving Women. London: Malaby Press.
Durrani, Tehmina. (1995). My Feudal Lord. London. Transworld publishers.
Durrani, Tehmina. (1999). Blasphemy. India. Penguine Books India.
Derrida, Jacques. (1982). Tympan (1972).in Margins of Philosophy, trans. Alan Bass.
Chicago University of Chicago Press. pp ix-xxix
Donne John. (2009). Good Morrow in The complete Poems of John Donne. Digireads.com
Publishing. p 9.
Heilburn,Carolyn G. (1989). Writing a Womens Life. Ballantine Books.
Majid, Anouar. (2005).The Politics of Feminism in Islam. In Saliba, 7KHUHVH$OOHQ
&DURO\Q +RZDUG -XGLWKD. Gender, Politics And Islam. India. Orient Longman Private
Limited.
Showalter,Elaine. (2011). Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness. In David Lodge Nigel
Wood. Modern Criticism and Theory. India. Pearson Education, Inc. and Dorling Kindersley
Smith, Robert. (1995). Derrida and Autobiography. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
6PLWK 6LGRQLH  -XOLD Watson. (1998). Women Autobiography, Theory: A Reader. The
United States of America. University of Wisconsin Press.

http://www.ijellh.com

383