Blasphemy is a heart wrenching novel. Written by a Pakistani Author, Tehmina Durrani. It is a tragic and an utterly shocking story which unveils the ugly faces of people in power. The book is set in south Pakistan and depicts male chlorination of the highest order ant tyranny in its crudest form and religious fundamentalism at its extreme. It also brings forth the easy distortion of Islam by the hypocrite and predatory so called religious leaders. The descriptions are awfully repulsive and the very thought that several thousands of women, even today, are subjected to this sort of life, is enough to give us shiver. Blasphemy tears the lid right off the shocking perversion of religious values by men in power. It is the story of a young bride’s descent into hell after her marriage to a sadistic pir, a hereditary saint, viewed as an intermediary between Allah and people.

The protagonist, Heer is like any other teenager, having her own dreams and aspirations. Just like she read in books and saw in movies. She is waiting for true love to knock at her door and sweep off her feet. However, Heer’s widow mother gets her married at the age of fifteen to a pir sain, a man of great honour and prestige, considered to be divine by his followers and thought of as the link between God and ignorant people. Despite the fact that pir sain is several years older than Heer the marriage is fixed as her mother wants to redeem her own status in the society and pir sain helps in doing so in every possible way. Heer enters her new house with rosy expectations but what follows this marriage is a series of torture, both physical and emotional. She is beaten, humiliated, abused, raped, trapped and made to live in the world her husband made for her.

At the beginning of the novel, we find that her actual married life was totally different from her dreamy world. A world where she was beaten brutally for coming in front of only six years old ‘man’. When Heer flourmill aunt’s daughter came to visit with her six years old son. Heer was so happy that her face lit up. Applying soap on her wrist under the tap beside the boundry wall. She was slipping on her new glass bangles, when pir sain welded in.  Her cousin and her son touched his feet, stood around uncomfortably for a while and left hurriedly. Heer was still staring sadly at the door they had vanished through, when pir sain ordered to put her hands on the table jolted her back. In a flash, they were there. In another flash his hand went up in the air and came down on them like an axe. The bangles splintered and scattered. Sharp shreds of glass cut into her wrists. She heard a lion soar and registered fragments of a sentence about her wretched family. Her head was reeling welts blossomed crimson. Her first beating began in full view of everyone and ended inside. Pir sain said that she had disobeyed Allah by not observing purdah before a male whom she could marry. But Heer thought that he was only six years old. She thought and wept “why Ma not stopped the ashtray from reaching her, surely she must have known the implications of such a liberal present.” Crying under the shower, she remembered Ma’s fear when her baba lost his temper. The old cleaning woman at home would also complain of frequent beatings and ma would ask baba to scold her husband. It never mattered that he, too, was guilty  of this act.

Ma would promptly defend her own husband with a hundred excuses, employment frustrations, financial worries, social pressures, and misunderstandings trigger off his outburst. But she always cried out to Allah against baba. But nobody hated baba for it. Heer says “we felt he only used the priviledges given him by God for having born a man”. Heer’s father often said “to protect our honour we are entitled to exercise authority”. But Heer thought, her parents also talked, laughed and joked with each other. Why was that not happening to her?

Heer lived in a world where she had none to share her pains, none to talk her heart out. Heer was not allowed to develop any intimacy and any kind of relationship with the maids of Haveli Amma Sain had warned her to talk to any maid would displease her master. She was suffering the loneliness in the Haveli and remembering her mother, sisters and brother. One day, amid the sadness in her heart and the madness in her life, a girl she had not seen before sauntered into the kitchen. She collected the dirty dishes, looked up at Heer and laughed, but without laughing, she winked, as if to say.” I’ll do before you blink your eye; and although nobody heard her, I did”.

People called her kaali because of her dark skin. When amma sain made her the cook’s help, she proved herself so efficient that soon she was required for everything and although Heer hated her supervisory duties, but she found herself rushing out to be with’ kaali’ in her company, Heer said “Nor did I pine for Ma”

Electric sparks flew every time when they stood together. Kaali’s doe eyes danced. Firework burst instead of smiles kaali’s hair fell untidely over her cheeks and a long plaint swayed from side to side like serpent down her back. Kaali’s reflexes were mercurial. There was no caution in her actions and no restrain in her reactions. Work turned into play and kaali played it like a sweet sounding instrument. Whe talked with heerthorugh gestures and body language even in the presence of cheel who was most trust worth of pirsain. She was most trust worthy of pirsian. She was appointed to watch everything by pirsain. Kaali was what heerlanged to be.

Suddenly, kaali disappeared from her prison. A week later, heerheared the news that her husband was important. One afternoon, Heer was on her prayer mat when she heard kaali, kaali and she stopped praying to listen a maid shouted. “how many times does he to it to kaali? You look like a squeezed lemon. Another one yelled above the dim kaali’s presence has created, you look like a wet cloth, wrung dry.” The maids laugh made Heer want to cry. Heer knew, she had returned only for her and sheroushed to the door. As she came closer, then women surrounding her faded into the background, Now kaali’s eyes looked like as dead as her own eyes. One day, she appeared with a black eye, on the next day, she had two kaali remained silent and did not answer the maids question? Heer wanted to know kaali’s sufferings but it could not be possible in the cheel;s presence. One day, she hugged her and asked about her sufferings and sorrows which had snatched the smiles and happiness from her life. After sometime, kaali again disappeared. The maid said that she was ill then that she was pregnant. The question arose in the mind of maids, whose child is this, they wanted to know “not an angel’s? Angels do not come down for that?” they mocked and laughed and sniggered while Heer burnt inside.

“kaali is dead, kaali is dead,” echoed in the haveli all day, hollowed out, but Heer remained an indifferent demeanour. Although everyone said that she had died in the child birth, but Heer believed that quashed rumor that she had hanged herself as she went to labor. It was said that the dead mother twisted in the wind while child struggle to born.

Heer thought that cheel was unaware about the intimacy between kaali and her and sain also did not kaali had told everything to Heer. But that night, heer hot sultry room chilled, when pir sain demanded to know “why do you always cry for kaali? He knew, she was suspected of having had an affair with kaali, fear of him mad it seems true even to her. Heer expressions confirmed the guilts. Heer’s answer were defensive and incriminating Pir Sian roared “whose child was Kaali carring she answered, her father in law sin. Her husband married for his old father’s pleasure, sain by that, Heer only exposed her intimacy with kaali. Ir sain wanted to know more, Heer wanted not to break another promse to kaali. But when the side of his hand hit across her throat like a knige, another promise broke. Her throat was in Pir Sain’s grip, he squeezed  out more vows. Between coughing and spluttering for breath she blurted out, kalli, sain father in-law let men lose on kaali, sain,. More he shouted, Heer told him more pushing zheer on thet ZHor, his foot crushed her face from under it. She struggled to break another promise, he watched them sian, hour after hour, day no more”. But she could not tell him more, she could not dare to say “you  know everything, Sain, you are always there, sain”. Pir Sain shouted for scissors. He sat on the chair, pulled her down between his legs and gripped her temples with his knees. Her eyes bulged at the ceiling. Time stood still to the sound of snipping. Then he shouted for a razor. Time froze to the sound of scraping. The razo ran across her scalp, then back and forth across her brow. Flung across the room, she saw him coil towards herself like torrid have flat on her back. He stomach protruced. Inside her baby kicked. Over it, the father descended.

          Night became day, day became night, another blazed until another night came and went and blue broke through black again. Her child pushed against his thrust, neither of them tired. He was still inside and the baby was coming out. Heer heard a warning from Pir Sain, No sound from you is to reach beyond the walls of this room”. Heer says “pain swallowed me and I swallowed it, stretching and cleaving and clutching the hands of my enemies, the maids, I thrust the baby ourt of my belted baby. I did not him cry or die”. Heer lived in a world where asking about her mother and siblings brought her more misery. After the death of her child. Her mother had come to see her with Pir Sain permission. Heer thought, Dit her mother not see her cropped hair? Did she not see the bruises? Did she not want to know how Her child died. One day. Heer told her mother “Ma take me home. He is not a Pir. He is a devil” but she refused and even asked Heer not to tell anything to her brother about her life the most reliable relationships were unreliable Heer thought, there was no unity among dogs, no spine in worms, and no integrity in insects. The weak discarded their loved ones when they became a burden. Her mother was a widow of no influence or consequence, she had no means to fight Pir sain’s power. She could take Heer back through a court but she was not that spirited. She had always compromised in favor of family honor. A scandal would kill her. Her mother said that the doors that opened wide for a mean slammed shut for a woman. If she fell our of grace, the society that hated her rise to prosperity would turn upon her”. Heer thought “she could not save me on her own. The system was to sigid to allow for that nor did she had the authority to interface in what seemed like my destiny I was signed away for a life and Pir Sain owned me”.

Pir sain owned me”

Heer lived in a world where she was not allowed to cross the threshold without her husband permission, a world where no flow was permitted, no mistake was forgiven, no logic was applied and no explanations were given.

          Heer miseries never seemed to come to an. Pir Sain gave her several kind of physical and emotional torture at little mistake and errors. One day, a crooked maid, terhi, handed Heer an envelope from her youngest brother in-law. She could not perceive what he wanted to say to her, and not daring to open the letter, she left it on Pir sain’s bedside table. Although she had never come before any of her husbands’ brothers, yet she had heard different version of their stories from their wives and maids from which she chose the most likely ones to believe. The brother next in age to Pir Sain was a debauch who spent his days and nights surrounded by young village girls and bottled of whisky in a government rest house allotted to the shrine decades ago by a devoted minister of these time. His third brother was worse. He had a roaring sexual relationship with his own daughter who operated so stealthily from behind her timid demeanor that she earned the name “Meesni” having lost her virginity,   

          She could not afford a husband and so her engagement to her cousin was broken off. This, they said, suited meesni and her father for now their relationship could flourish uncluttered forever. Pir Sain’s fourth brother had married three middle aged maidservants after his marriage to amma sian’s young niece. He was also known to have a long standing relationship with his wife’s mother who being Amma sain’s widowed sister was lodged in the Haveli. Despite these heinous crimpers, pir was furious only with the fifth and youngest brother for deamaging his cotton crop by cheating on the quality of pesticide. Although this brogther continued to visit Amma Sain, Fir Sain had not spoken to him for over a year. Now he had sent a letter to her (Heer). When Pir Sain’s eyes fell on the envelope, he picked it up and inquired who gave this to you’. Heer told him, Terhi’ and wet branches from the date tree were summoned. Terhi was fortunately blessed with old age and her punishment was lighter them Heer. She was ordered to lie flat on her stomach, she obeyed instently. Two maids held her outstretched arms above her head and another tow goasped her ankles. A lightening swing made the khajji whip hiss and swish. It was always regulated by his energy, never by how much she could endure. Fabric slashed, the flesh beneath tore and she swallowed the pain through her pursed lips. To avoid blood clotting, she was instructed to get up and walk immediately. Wondering what kin of mind could justify such a severe punishment for no crime, she placed the roan on weak and shaky legs with her litter bundle sucking on her brust. It to weeks for her to recover from wounds that had made her dependent on the maids to wash and clean and help her in her most intimate chores. Here wondered how Pir sain did nothing to stop the incest flourishing so bluntly on both sides of his home. She was appalled that even Amma Sain’s relationship with her criminal sons was not in the least affected by it. In fact she showed no sign of disapproval against the grand daughter who had complied to live in sin with her father not did her sisters’ relationship with her son create any hostility between them. Their only small errors were big sons.

          During these years, Heer came to know about a rebel lived in pir sain’s domain she was surprised when dai told her story about tara rebel. Dai said that tara was a struck, dumb as a child yet she grew beautiful. Tara fell in love with land holder, love blossomed and miraculously, her tongue became fertile and her womb impregnate with his seed. But the land owner denied accepting her as a wife. Then tara became furious and turned him back in the same coin. She was the first women in pir sain’s domain who raised her voice against the injustices of the male dominant society. The maids often turned each other with the examples of tara. Everyone wanted to be taa but no one dared. Heer wished kaali had been like tara instead of like her.

          During these tormenting years. Heer become the mother of tree daughters, Guppi, Diya and Munni and two sons chote sain and Raja ji. Heer felt that chote sain was just like the pure soul of baba ji and raja ji was the just like his father pir sain who wanted the authority and power to rule over weak people. Heer lived in a world where she had to protect her daughters their own father. In this world there were the only word heard was of pir sain as and when he wanted.

Now Guppi was twelve years old. She had turned into the little girl. Heer used to be Guppi was serene like a gentle river whos path is old and set. She had kept away from her father. He did not even recognized her when she. Saw her playing with other children. The reason was that at her birth, Pir Sain did not show any sign of happiness and even did not see her face. Pir brutal lust was so much overpowered him that even his own daughter became the victim of his lust. Now heer pulled herself up with the burdon of Guppi’s added burden. Every moment hence forth would be a risk and every might would be a threat because her father was a wolf in the religious clothes. Inadvertently, heer eyes fell uon a group of children playing under the clothesline and focused upon the frail, unloved body of an orphan girl, changing shape just like Guppi’s clothes and instructed her to bath. Heer ordered a main to brush her hair and plaet neatly. That night, she was in the bath and Heer was waiting in the room. Pir Sain snapped, “What is this girl doing here? She is for you Pir Sain I muttered. I wondered about her and he answered as though he had heard me, leave her”, relived at his acceptance, she shup the door behind her. She harnessed her guilt. Compassion in eye of a storm was impossib.e. but she thought child was a lesser evil them incest. She said “o Allah what had I done”. Sh thought perhaps the little girl had died from fear of him. An interminable hour latter, Pir Sain’s door opened and he shouted for Heer. She ran to the room. A wounded baby dear with frightened eyes lay on the floor. His mouth was stuffed with Pir Sain’s handkerchief. Her torso was naked and her child like breasts boro teeth marks. The rest was covered with a sheet. Squatting beside her, Heer pulled out the handkerchief from her mouth and she realized a small sigh of condensed hysteria at this moment. Heer says “when I lifted the sheet, my heart bled on the to the red stain that had spread beneath her” oh God, she thought, if it were not she, would it be Guppi?

Heer guided yathimiri to an empty room she ditched the blood stain sheet around her body. Until Heer managed to tug it away from her. Pir Sain evil was tattooed all over her little form yathimiri leogs shook like a aged woman. Between them blood trickled and dried when she saw Heer look she pulled them together rest. Yathimiri covered her had with the blanket without once meeting heer eye. Fighting against the visions of yathimiri’s  mother with the thought of Guppi, Heer walked out. There was no choice. Heer thought” I could not be Guppi and Guppi could not become another Meesni” Glancing sideways at her husband’s fatterned body heaving on his charpai, Heer fastend her pace and crept into bed. Searching the sky for an answer, she asked “almighty, who is this man , God? Is he exonerated because of his ancestors was good” Heer duged into her frayed mind for a solution. She thought where could she send this girl? Whom could she trust? She was also wondered. If meesni’s mother had tried to protect her child before giving up? Would Guppi’s father approached her again? For now she had satiated the lion’s appetite but how long would it be before he hungered again? Heer thouth, who would to save yathimiri from pir sain’s lust. She thought, she could send yathimir to sakhi bibi. She could bribge the marason to take a note from her and swear her to secrecy and save the girl from pir sian. But no, she could not let. Yeathimiri go. He would turn on Guppi again. Guppi could go nowhere. The reason for sacricie was alive and kicking. Heer though only another girl could keep him away. Who would that why had he shifted the venue of his evil desires from Jagirdar’s home to his own Haveli? Why had he chosen Guppi when there were so many other little girls disappearing everyday? Why had he involved her? How many more little girls would she have to slaughter to save her own little girls? All day long, Heer racked her over the issue and turned it arounded in every possible way until she finally decided to keep yathiminri because there was nobody to ask after yathimiri’s  choice was safe.

          On her prayer mat, she cried to Allah, “why is a mother compassion all compassing? Why does it leave nothing for anyone else? Am I to turn a blind eye like meesni’s mother or am I not to turn away” oh Allah, she worried, “will yathimiri sustain his lust until all my daughters are married, will she sustain the evil”? During her periods, Pir Sain orderd Bring Yathimiri He summoned her four out of seven days of absence.

          On the whole, Blasphemy is a curious novel, rather patchly only sorrow and fear, fear of being battered and sexually abused. Motherhood added to her miseries as her children suffered the same fate as Heer and she felt doubly tortured on their account. Guppi was now fourteen years old. Pir sain decided to marry her with his nephew. Heer felt that her daughter, future loomed too dose. The boy frightened Heer. His background left no doubt in her mind that her daughter was walking into danger. Her uncle might succeed in what her father had desired. Her husband might reconcile like his mother. Her sister is law meesni, might, encourage the sin. The Question arose in Heer’s mind about the future of her daughter. Heer wished to tell her husband not to expose Guppito a house where incest was a way of life.

          In this m environment of Haveli one day’s a middle aged woman with her two daughter came to seak a shelter. The widow wept and wailed before amma sian that she had nobody in the world. She said bibji, Allah sent me here for protection. My girls are reaching puberty. It is difficult to keep them from the lusting eyes of men. We have nobody to take care of us except you”. In an attempt to make her free from this more dangerous zone them she had yet experienced, Heer’s eyes pierced through hers as she said in her heart “leave at once, never return, Go away quickly. Go before the devil snatches her baby. But she stayed. When Pir sain came to know about the widow’s daughter tonight, a dagger stabbed in her heart. Guilt knocked her mind but she kicked it out. Diya and Munni were growing up. She wanted to save her daughters from the evil clutches of Devil (Pir Sian). That was why she was leading the widow’s lamb for slaughter instead of slaughtering her own lambs.

          “It become impossible to resume the role of a dcent woman. Oh Allah I cried on my prayer mat. How many lives can a spirit live at  one time? How many feelings can it feel at one time? Hwo many people can it be? That I had to be tow women made me want to strangle the guilt ridden one.

The widow was also the victim of man’s bruteal natur. Her story also highlights the vil aspect of the male dominant society in which man think himself like a god to rule over woman. Her tale was similer and yet different to everyone’s else. She said that her father was kulli at the railway station. She was twelve year old when she sold her for four thousands rupees to a tribal bamashe who lacked her in a room on a hil. He sold her to anyone who would pay, by barter if not currency. Then he sold her to a man called
Reech” who looked like wild bear. He offered her to the entire village for free until a man, to whom ‘Reeach” owed a debt, borrowed her and refused to give her back to her master.

This man worked her in the filds all the day and in his bed all the night one day he sold her for a hukka to another man and her worth was reduced to the cow dug. She said that “I did not know whose seeds festerd in my womb” when asked “why do you call yourself a widow if you were never married? With a wily smile she explained “It is respected.