Shame

In the novel Shame by Salman Rushdie, the character Sufiya Sinobia depicts the shame of Pakistan by demonstrating the inferiority of women to men in the aspect as a whole as well as based on their intelligence. From the moment Sufiya Sinobia was born, she was the shame of her family simply based upon the fact that she was a female. Her parents were expecting a recarnation of the boy they had lost and when they had Sufiya their response was, “Is that all, my God, So much huffery and puffery to push out only this mouse” (Rushdie 88) this further demonstrated Sufiya’s inferiority in the eyes of Pakistani parents. According to McLeod, women have the power of childbirth, but in Pakistan childbirth is only honored and appreciated when a boy is born. Sufiya’s own father denied her gender when she was born stating, “Mistakes are often made!” (Rushdie 88). It’s disheartening to read but from the moment Sufiya took her first breath she was the shame and denied by the very parents that should care for her. Sufiya also embodies the inferiority of women to men based upon intelligence. Sufiya becomes ill with a fever which eventually makes her mentally retarded.  In response to this defect her mother feels she has shamed her husband, “he wanted a hero of a son; I gave him an idiot female instead” (Rushdie, 101). Women throughout Pakistan are persecuted for the simplest fact of being a woman. They are not respected nor thought of as intelligent in any aspect. The only thing a woman is seen worthy of is sexual fulfillment. These ideals are not secluded to just Pakistan, they are seen through the eyes of men throughout India.

Notes- For this blog post, I tried to have a stronger for concise thesis statement to better set up the rest of my paragraph. I tried also to stick to one general idea and not bounce from idea to idea. 

Women in Pakistan

A major theme I discussed for Shame was the inferiority of women in Pakistan. Women in Pakistan face a lot of turmoil much worse than that of Sufiya. There are immense amounts of violent and sexual crimes against Pakistani women. The most common crimes are
The crime categories include honour killing, forced marriage, offenses relating to marriage, rape, attack on modesty and insult of modesty through word, gesture or act. I was shocked to find that martial rape is not even recognized in Pakistani Law nor is domestic violence explicitly prohibited .

Crimes Increase Against Pakistani Women

Although women do still face crime and violence, there have strives of improvement. There are some women present in political parties and activism. 

This photo is of Naela Chohan, who is an Ambassador of Pakistan as well as a feminist artist.