INTENT OF BLASPHEMY
On the inside sleeve of this book's hardcover edition, Tehmina Durrani writes that the intent of "Blasphemy" is to expose the corruption in society, not denigrate Islam. I read that before I read the Book, so perhaps my interpretation of the book was slightly colored. However, I honestly do not agree with the two extremes that other readers have presented: one being that it's completely wrong, and the other being that it's completely right.
On the one hand, Islam has given women more inalienable rights than any other religion ever has. On the other hand, the practitioners of Islam in many societies have successfully managed to distort the practices of the religion to suit their own needs. In many cases, this means delegating women to their homes. One Pakistani mullah (a member of the so-called clergy) recently said, "In Islam, a woman has full rights. But these rights are restricted to the four walls of her home." In an illiterate society, the people hear "a woman has full rights" and nod their heads, agreeing. Then they hear the restriction upon these rights, which they most likely have never heard of unless they're already corrupted, and figure, "well, if the mullah says so, it must be true." The same situation happened during the Dark Ages with the Christian church: the vast majority of society was uneducated, and the clergy was free to tamper with the religion and its followers as it pleased. Look at what happened.
The purpose of Ms. Durrani's book is two-fold: one, it is an enjoyable book to read. More importantly, however, it sends a subtle but powerful message to its reader that Pakistani society in particular (and Muslim societies in general) need to wake up to the enormous problem of clergy. Clergy are not sanctioned in Islam, yet today, they wield enormous power. While I do not necessarily share the same views with Ms. Durrani on how to bring about reform, or what that reform entails, I do fully support her claim that reform needs to be implemented.
For
the reader of "Blasphemy" who is unfamiliar with Ms. Durrani's
background, she is a member of
By Meltem Tanilkani
The story basically tells about the power of religious leaders in a society of illiterate people. I find the whole story quite interesting because the author attempts to show that people don't hate others who perform the devil and sins as long as they do it secretly, no matter how terrible things they do. As long as everything has been kept as a secret, the society never blames the ones who are responsible of all the sins. But if one of the victims tries to make everybody know about the sins, then they blame the victim but not the responsible one.
I
don't think that the story is against Islamic society. It is simply against the
exploitation of religious feelings and fears of ignorant people by clergymen
(pirs) who are thought to be close to god and have special power to help
people. And I also don't think that the the author tries to say that this is
what
A very intense reading. It did not take me too long to become part of the suffering of the character at the hands of peer Sain. I have experianced this believe system in our family. It took me more than 5 years to make my case with the family and finally to get rid of the 'Holy Man'.
Tehmina
has done a wonderfull job of painting the 'Peer Culture' in
"" To me, my husband was... My son’s murderer.... He was also my daughter’s molester.... A parasite nibbling... On the Holy Book... He was Lucifer... Holding me by the throat.... and driving me to sin every night.... He was Bhai’s destoyer... Amma Sain’s tormentor... Ma’s humbler.... And the people’s exploiter.... He was the rapist of orphans... and the fiend that fed on the weak.... But... over and above all this... he was known to be... the man closest to Allah... the one who could reach Him... and save us.""
“I wanted to but I couldn’t”
These words reverberate through the protagonist’s mind from the beginning of her journey from a young nubile girl full of dreams and desires till the end of the lst chapter where by her mid life, has helplessly suffered much more than her due in life.
Authored by Tehmina Durrani, known for her controversial autobiography “My Feudal Lord” in 1991 takes on a similar narrative path of female subjugation in a society where morality and politics are deeply entrenched in social evils levied by warped and dysfunctional interpretations of Islam. This time, however, she objectifies the story to a girl although without dehumanizing her desires, spirit and nuances in her character.
Set
in the interiors of
From the wedding night onwards, Heer discovers the untamed side of her husband which she must satisfy and serve, sometimes by submitting young girls to save her own daughter or herself to other men to save herself the beating. In her suffering, she simultaneously fulfils her inquisitiveness around the historical lineage of the Pirs in the shrine from the elderly women in the house and unknowingly from the spirit of a woman who died fifty years ago in a tragic tale. She constantly questions the establishment of religious authorities like her husband who amass the wealth and hopes of many with no respite or change in their condition. However, like her domestic boundaries, these thoughts ruminate only in the four walls of her mind as any question or wayward comment cannot to risked to be deemed as ‘blasphemy’ for all the horrible consequences that follow.
Moreover,
the book disturbingly exposes the incest, sexual and physical violence and
perversion and the overt gender disparity beset in the privacy and closed doors
of holy and politically powerful men in
The
author made her sensational literary debut in 1991 with her controversial
autobiography, My Feudal Lord (see the Politics section in DesiStore), which
won
Inspired by a true story, Blasphemy is a searing study of evil, an uncompromising look at the distortion of Islam by predatory religious leaders. In prose of great power and intensity, the author tells the tragic story of the beautiful Heer, brutalized and corrupted by Pir Sain, the man of God, her Husband.
Blasphemy depicts the struggle of a Muslim Woman against all that is contrary to what Islam stands for. It is an amalgamation of fact and fiction, blending to disguise and protect the victims of a horrible human tragedy, while exposing the powerful religious imposters who prey on a wretched and powerless people. A shocking tale of cruelty, sex and violence.
It gives a horrific account of how the custodians of religon are using their 'special knowledge' to exploit the illiterate masses. The central character, Heer, is one such victim of this form of designed oppression by the antagonist Pir Sain. It’s her exceptional beauty that catches Pir Sain’s eyes at first. After abusing her body on the night of their marriage, Pir Sain sets out to control her mind and soul as Heer is forcibly adapted to a life alien to her and unbearable to any human being. Blasphemy is a tale where day after day the body keeps surrendering and the soul keeps rebelling as Heer searches for a moment of peace.
Through Heer’s experience the author brings out a blasphemous way of life, unknown to the layman, practiced not only by Pir Sain but also by his followers. Pir Sain’s abstinence from going to his wife during Ramadan is the action of any orthodox Muslim. His beating of Heer for missing her prayers further secures his image in front of the extremists. But then there is his demand that Heer aborts their child so he may satisfy his carnal desires, demands immediate retribution. Despite all his vices, he is holy and almost divine by his followers. Blasphemy is a tale where Heer exposes the evils of these 'holy-men' - first to herself and then to us.
Blasphemy, Durrani's third novel, also hailed as her re-entry to the world of controversies. Blasphemy narrates the heart wrenching story of Heer, a teenager married to a Pir who was more than double her age. Pir, or Pir Sain, as he is referred to in the book is a Man of God, revered and worshiped dearly by people. Pir Sain and his Shrine are the only religious authority in an unnamed place where Heer dwells after her unfortunate marriage to him. Pir Sain, though claiming to be a direct descendent of The Prophet (PBUH) has the most convoluted understanding of Islam. While to the world outside he is a holy man, within the confines of his hujra, he is nothing but a compulsive erotomaniac. Before going onto detail the cases of physical and sexual violence which fill Heer's life upon her betrothal to Pir Sain, the book makes an important expose of the business that has been made out of religion; a business running not just on money but on mad drive for pleasures. Exploiting the weak in the name of their God is the most hideous deed, but is performed with nonchalance, pride and authority by Pir Sain.
He exploits the weak outside and within his home. Imposing strict norms of purdah upon the womenfolk of his haveli, it is the same purdah his rips off with indefatigable mad zeal each night, each afternoon and sometimes thrice in a day. Victimized by his tormentor early in her teens, Heer sees the worst kind of sexual, physical, mental and emotional agony as she tries to coexist with Pir Sain in his household as nothing more than a lurking shadow. Pir Sain is depicted in the novel as a man devoid of any emotions. To such extents spreads his stone heartedness that he ends up causing death of his own heir and does not shy away from attempting incest with his own daughter. A mother's relentless battle to protect her children and a women's unending fight to save whatever scrapes of honor she can to face Allah on the Judgement day form the essence of the story of Heer- one that is going to pierce right through you.
More chilling than the gory contents of the book is a single line in the beginning, which proclaims that this novel has been inspired by true life incidents. I don't know how many times while reading this novel have I found myself whispering to whatever divine power exists out there- Let that claim by the author be fake. How can a woman suffer so much violence? How can a man inflict it with such brutality? How can people deceive people with such blatant impudence? How can people deceive their own God, their Allah?
It was not a tale that moved me. It was a take that shook, stirred and angered me. It revealed to me those numerous satanic elements which exist in our society covered in a 'chaddar with 99 names of Allah on it'. We are not completely out of those ages where women were considered nothing but a burden and a commodity to pleasure men. There still exists cultures in our world where a marriage of a daughter is not celebrated because it is shameful to celebrate giving away of a daughter to someone else's bed. Deflowering a girl is an existing mad passion which infests many a twisted minds, and closer home, till date, a girl has to fight one extra battle (at least) if she is to claim what should rightfully be hers. Women are owned, controlled and passed on from hand to hand- as if the whole society has prepared a schematic to forever forbid them of an exclusive identity of their own. Men and women themselves are equally guilty of perpetuating this tradition of insufferable oppression.
I know there exists positive sides in the world. But for now, the quill of Durrani has done its bit to anger me. Written with a simplicity meant to break your hearts into a million pieces, this books shows you how in our world, black is white and white is black. For all the crusaders of women's rights and empowerment out there, this book is very strongly recommended. For those who believe in the rosy picture of life, this book is recommended still- It is always nice to gain an alternate, real, hard hitting perspective on things. For those with weak hearts, stay away from this book. Though not graphic, still the descriptions of sexual violence in this book are so grotesque that they might make your heart scream in horror. I am one with a weak heart and I had to suffer a nightmare. So despite the fact that I am all ga ga over this book at present, a caveat is definitely in order from me.
But reading her latest work Blasphemy, a novel which the Pakistani writer claims is based on a true story, was an even more nerve-wrecking experience. There were times when I felt like putting the novel aside, not completing it. It is too horrifying, too nauseating to be true.
Yet, it stands to reason that literature reflects, or rather refracts, life though it might make things appear more grim and sordid than they actually are, in order to draw attention to the seriousness of the situation. This is the only way one can explain the attitude of Pir Sain, the bestial cleric-protagonist of the novel towards his wife, elder son and daughter, who he tries to molest.
From the day she marries Pir Sain, Heer knows only sorrow and fear—fear of being battered and sexually abused. Motherhood adds to her miseries as her children suffer the same fate and she feels doubly tortured on their account. But there is a limit to everything and Pir Sain is murdered by a woman who had been planning it for a long time since all the men in her family had been killed by his thugs.
On the whole, Blasphemy is a curious novel, rather patchy with the seams showing. The atrocities suffered by Heer and her children and distortion of the tenets of Islam which constitute the main body of the novel, stand in sharp contrast to the end. There is a lyrical quality about Heer's death. To quote her, "I looked up into the sky, at Baba smiling down at me, his face appearing and disappearing like a mist. At last he had come. It was heaven." Why must Heer die? Why can't she live on after Pir Sain is dead, a symbol of
Cheel, the mysterious woman in the novel, trusted most by Pir Sain and ultimately the one who murders him and his mistress, is represented rather inconsistently and the reader is not satisfied with her answer to Heer's question as to why she had waited all her life to kill Pir Sain, though Heer seems happy enough with the answer.
Blasphemy can be critiqued on two levels—as a literary work and as a comment on the degenerative forces at work in a closed society without a window to the outside world. Tehmina Durrani, who experienced acute marital discord and has talked about it in her first book, naturally highlights that aspect in Blasphemy, exposing clerics who get away with anything in the name of institutionalised religion because they operate in a fundamentalist society where no one can point an accusing finger at them.
As a novel, Blasphemy has an uneven texture and an assortment of characters, some of whom are stereotypical while others are strange like Toti the ghost, even Cheel the sharp-eyed woman, very similar to her namesake the bird. Cheel is still credible despite her strange ways but Toti, the spirit of a woman Pir Sain had tortured and put to death, does not really fit in, maybe because she is too transient. A haunting presence pervading the novel, capable of arousing fear, might have been a better bet though by and large in a grim novel rooted in real horrors like Blasphemy Toti seems grossly out of place. The novel would have benefited from rigorous editing.
But reading her latest work Blasphemy, a novel which the Pakistani writer claims is based on a true story, was an even more nerve-wrecking experience. There were times when I felt like putting the novel aside, not completing it. It is too horrifying, too nauseating to be true.
Yet, it stands to reason that literature reflects, or rather refracts, life though it might make things appear more grim and sordid than they actually are, in order to draw attention to the seriousness of the situation. This is the only way one can explain the attitude of Pir Sain, the bestial cleric-protagonist of the novel towards his wife, elder son and daughter, who he tries to molest.
From the day she marries Pir Sain, Heer knows only sorrow and fear—fear of being battered and sexually abused. Motherhood adds to her miseries as her children suffer the same fate and she feels doubly tortured on their account. But there is a limit to everything and Pir Sain is murdered by a woman who had been planning it for a long time since all the men in her family had been killed by his thugs.
On the whole, Blasphemy is a curious novel, rather patchy with the seams showing. The atrocities suffered by Heer and her children and distortion of the tenets of Islam which constitute the main body of the novel, stand in sharp contrast to the end. There is a lyrical quality about Heer's death. To quote her, "I looked up into the sky, at Baba smiling down at me, his face appearing and disappearing like a mist. At last he had come. It was heaven." Why must Heer die? Why can't she live on after Pir Sain is dead, a symbol of the resilience of woman, unless of course the author is unsure of what to do with her.
Cheel, the mysterious woman in the novel, trusted most by Pir Sain and ultimately the one who murders him and his mistress, is represented rather inconsistently and the reader is not satisfied with her answer to Heer's question as to why she had waited all her life to kill Pir Sain, though Heer seems happy enough with the answer.
Blasphemy can be critiqued on two levels—as a literary work and as a comment on the degenerative forces at work in a closed society without a window to the outside world. Tehmina Durrani, who experienced acute marital discord and has talked about it in her first book, naturally highlights that aspect in Blasphemy, exposing clerics who get away with anything in the name of institutionalised religion because they operate in a fundamentalist society where no one can point an accusing finger at them.
As a novel, Blasphemy has an uneven texture and an assortment of characters, some of whom are stereotypical while others are strange like Toti the ghost, even Cheel the sharp-eyed woman, very similar to her namesake the bird. Cheel is still credible despite her strange ways but Toti, the spirit of a woman Pir Sain had tortured and put to death, does not really fit in, maybe because she is too transient. A haunting presence pervading the novel, capable of arousing fear, might have been a better bet though by and large in a grim novel rooted in real horrors like Blasphemy Toti seems grossly out of place. The novel would have benefited from rigorous editing.
INTENT OF BLASPHEMY
Blasphemy.. the book is an extreme depiction of male tyranny & religious fundamentalism. When I borrowed it - I felt it would be either a feminist book or one about a tortured women in an islamist state. When I started reading it turned out be the latter for sure but the extreme of torture was uncomparable to anything I had read.. How can someone be tortured so much and still survive and end up with a happy ending.. its quiet impossible that one lives a life of a slave, being raped, beaten t...more like · see review
Blasphemy is Tehmina Durrani's novel about the exploitation at the hands of her husband. Many describe the novel to be about "religious" exploitation, however, it is evident in the story that religious plays no part in the sins of a man, its the exploitation of a religion that allows a mere man to act like God, in the case of this woman. A lot of Muslims may take offense to this book, however, I do not think that Durrani was speaking against Islam, as a matter of fact, I think this story condemn..
