Treatment of Women in Pakistani Short Stories: A Case Study of “The Breast” and “The Wedding of Sundri”
Keywords:
women, suppression, society, honor killing, mutilation, compensationAbstract
This paper attempts to analyze two of the Pakistani short stories written in English by female authors. The focus of this paper is to trace the suppression of females that can be direct or indirect suppression. The suppression that females usually face is mostly associated with men trying to establish and exercise their power and authority over females. This article tries to establish the fact that suppression and discrimination or subjugation faced by the females is not just at the hands of males but other females as well. The short stories selected for this study are “The Breast” and “The Wedding of Sundri” by Soniah Kamal and Bina Shah respectively. The methodology adopted for this study is textual analysis. Soniah Kamal’s story takes place in an unnamed community but because of the terminologies used the story can be easily believed to be set in some part of rural Pakistan. The other story by Bina Shah is set in rural part of Sindh and some under-developed region of Sindh. On one hand, women claim that they are being suppressed and oppressed by men but these two stories prove that females are just as much responsible for female subjugation as the males in some society.
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