AEGAEUM JOURNAL ISSN NO: 0776-3808

‘Carnal Fierceness’ in Kishwar Naheed’s Poems The Rain Within Myself and A Story

Afsara Raheen M.A, (PhD), KSET [email protected]

Abstract: The paper highlights the carnal fierceness in the select poems of Kishwar Naheed, one of the foremost of , who draws thwarting experiences, breakable and cracked relationships, and of remote distresses outshined or reinforced by civic procedures in her poetry. The paper demonstrates that Kishwar Naheed’s poems are multifaceted constructions of emotive statuses and approaches of expression. It shows that most of her poems demand freedom of from the oppressive rule of the government and the husbands or male dominators in the institution of the family. The paper shows that Naheed is a revolutionary poetess who with her simple language won the hearts of many in Pakistan as well as in other parts of the world. The poem The Rain Within Myself and the story and A Story by Naheed are an extraordinary caricature of the private life of dominative husbands and oppressed wives.

The paper aims to bring the feminist idea of marriage and the relationships between man and woman that is a global perspective. The events described in the poem are not only restricted to Pakistan but the whole world. The paper appreciates the idea of a woman that can be signified into multiple meanings such as, a girl, married woman, widow, old woman. And the word cardinal fierceness is commonly known to everyone, like the idea of woman, but it also has multiple meanings such as flirt, sexual abuse, sexual violence, rape, murder, etc. The paper highlights that the meanings are not restricted, it changes from time to time. Naheed’s poetry is written from Pakistan, it not merely speaks violence against women in Pakistan but also rejects violence against all the women in the world.

Keywords , Marriage, Carnal Fierceness, Authoritarian Rule, Patriarchy.

Introduction

Kishwar Naheed a major of Pakistan is famous for her feminist ideologies in her poetry. She is a multi-talented woman, who worked as a civil servant, broadcaster and editor of one of the Pakistani magazines, she also wrote many books including seven collections of poems. She fought against the patriarchal ideologies in her poetry and worked hard for women's rights.

The dominant thought that exists in Kishwar Naheed’s poetry is a strong desire to break away from the social construct which she was brought up with to challenge the authoritarian attitude of state and society to control a woman's body and sexuality. She used poetry at critical historical moments to discuss intimate issues of self, emotions, and sexuality that could not, in their socio-historical contexts, be otherwise expressed (Ananatharam, 2009, p.209).

Ahmad while writing about Naheed’s poetry says that,

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“Naheed's poetry has always been seen as a threat to the patriarchal order as the women in her poems become their liberators and they crave and strive to break the rules and shackles imposed upon them by men, to break the boundaries of marginality, they want to cross over, to soar high in the horizons where they have always been forbidden to roam. She has been described as the only Pakistani feminist ―who poses a serious threat to men through her work, her lifestyle, her manner and through ceaseless verbal challenge”. (pp. 20-21).

Both the poems have to be seen in the socio-political context of Pakistan at the time of its publication. Zia-ul-Haq’s rule is the most important concept to know her poetry well. It was in this rule that women were not allowed to speak against the government, they were asked to stay inside the four walls with no other activities except the domestic work. They were asked to be blind, deaf and mute towards the illegal actions of the government. But feminists like Naheed, Zehera Nigar, and others were unable to shut themselves from the wrong actions and it was because of their sound that everyone heard the injustices done towards women in Pakistan. She played the role of an awakener to awake the asleep generation.

Kishwar Naheed’s poems The Rain Within Myself and A Story are drawn from her collection of poetry “The Prince of Looking Back”. Baidaa Bakht and Derek M. Cohen translated these poems from Urdu to English. The two poems shed the theme of Carnal fierceness. It objectified half of humanity named women by the patriarchy. Almost all her poems reveal the themes of injustices of women done by the patriarchal society in Pakistan.

The poet in The Rain Within Myself explains about the sexual violence made by men on women. She begins her poem with the title The Rain Within Myself, here the word ‘Rain’ is a metaphor for violence, sufferings, and other grievances given by a husband or so-called male-superiors for faithfulness of a woman. Here are a few lines quoted from her poem, those are,

“To you, I was a window. You opened me And enjoyed the scene as you pleased, And inhaled the breeze and colors.” (stanza-1)

The speaker used the word ‘I and you’ in the poem repeatedly which refers to a woman and man/wife and her husband. The words ‘I and you’ clarify that the poem is by an oppressed woman to an oppressor, that is her husband. The speaker portrays her sufferings in the poem that, she is the woman who suffered in the hands of her husband and was treated as an object by him for his pleasures and forgotten her care, devotions, and sincere duties after a while and demonstrated his cruelty over her.

Objectification is one of the central concepts in feminist theory. Kishwar also focus mainly on the sexual objectification of women in the society by the patriarchy. Here it would be apt to remember, Arshad who claims that,

“It is true, violence against women is a global issue and every society is infused by the continued manifestations and reactions to instances of rape and sexual assault on women. But while a gang rape on a bus in sparks a global furor and a rape in Steubenville, Ohio sparks a similar wave of repudiation the difficulty of such victims in Pakistan is, by and large, ―confined to frame articles in the press, slow-moving cases in the courts, and regular dropped charges due to bribes, threats of further violence and family pressure

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on the victim to avoid further shame. However,…the blaming, shaming, and judgment directed toward the victims of these horrific crimes remains a key component of the dialogue surrounding even these high-profile instances of sexual assault.” (p.9)

The poet uses many metaphors in the poem to reveal the suppression of a woman. She says that for her husband her body was like a window, which was opened and closed many times. He opened her and enjoyed the pleasure of her body as he desired without bothering the wish of his wife.

“To shelter from the storm, You closed the shutters And I became a robe Snugly wrapped around you.”(stanza-2, p.14)

To protect himself from the cool weather and its storm he closed the shutters and then she became a robe; a loose piece of cloth which covered her body, and undesirably but very warmly and comfortably she made to cover around him.

The speaker satirizes that the woman in the poem undesirably serves herself to her husband and claims it as the force by man which nevertheless a rape in the marital life. While the sheer volume of sexual assault and rape, Arshad quotes Michelman and Tracy, speaks to the occurrence of violent and negative attitudes towards women, the victim-blaming and judgment that occurs paints an even more disturbing picture revealing how rebellious and long- lasting these negative perspectives of women are. (Michelman and Tracy, January 22, 2013).

"To you, I was a tunnel, Where you could shelter when you wished And could conceal me too. To keep your footprints from sight you walked in me for life”

The speaker, who is a woman, was like a passage to her husband from where he protected himself from the cold weather whenever he wished and he carefully covered and hid her too. The last two lines demonstrate that to hide his faults he took her help to live his life happily. The husband was a cruel and aggressive man who took her advantage to fulfill his desires but didn’t even care for her.

Arshad who brings an argument in his article that suits the above line explaining satirically well that, “there was a ―significant organizational stride that culminated in a nationwide stir to challenge authoritarianism in all its manifestations, to demand equality and justice. It paved way for some substantial amendments in the notorious and intrinsically misogynistic Offense of Zina (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance, 1979 (Ordinance VII of 1979). This ordinance required a victim of rape to produce four credible, truthful and pious male witnesses about whom the Court is satisfied, having regard to the requirements of tazkiyah al-shuhood [credibility of witnesses] to confess that they have seen the act of penetration, failing which the victim was trailed and punished for committing adultery or fornication.”(p.7)

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Further, the speaker in the poem continues that for (man) him, like for other husbands, the woman is like a dream, these men experiences in their mind to get it. Here are the lines,

"To you, I was a dream; I was water; I was sand; I was the reality on command; And like indigestions after taste; Forgotten.”(stanza-4)

Speaker criticizes that the woman is like water for him; which is clean, pure and molds its shape in every vessel beautifully, but it doesn’t matter how impure and hard he is. She is like sand for him who made deserts and many beaches to survive him by making herself die for him. Kishwar argues that the women in the society are treated as low grade and compared to objects even as born to a human. They are neither respected in families nor outside of the four walls. As Geetha suggests that,

“feminist critics feel that the segregation of the public and private spheres has largely accounted for the silent subordination and the marginalization of women. the public life is man's domain; women belong to the invisible private sphere. This deliberate suppression of women has helped culture to create its representation of the gender; this fictional woman had for centuries appeared on stage in the myths and in the plastic arts "representing the patriarchal values attached to the gender while suppressing the experiences, stories, feelings, and fantasies of actual women"(p. 247)

The lines in the poem continue that, she was a reality on command; the woman was real rather imaginary and was ordered even by the lord and law to submit herself to man and to be obedient to him no matter how disobedient he is. And ultimately she was like a great pain in the body after its taste/pleasures, and again forgets the pain and taste and yarns for the same pleasure. The speaker criticizes that all rules are made for women by men that she should be pure, follow chastity, and submit her will to men. Arshad argues that,

“women were also victimized under the Offence of Qazf Ordinance 1979 (that applies to a complainant who accuses Zina [fornication/adultery/ extramarital sex] against another person in a Court, but fails to produce four witnesses in support thereof before the Court, and when the complainant is found to have made a false accusation of Zina- bil-jabr [rape]).”(p.7)

Further, he quotes the statements of Aslam and others and argues that,

“It was openly alleged and widely believed that the Pakistani police proved to be disappointingly criminal in practice, by refusing to register cases under Zina bil-Jabr i.e. rape, and recording it instead as a case of Zina i.e. adultery (Aslam, 2003; Amnesty International, 1999; Jahangir; Quraishi 1997). Promulgated in the name of Islam, the Zina Ordinance remained a tool of oppression for almost twenty-five years. President Musharraf‘s gift to the women of Pakistan in the form of the Protection of Women (Criminal Laws Amendment) Act, 2006 did not repeal Hudood Ordinance rather it was

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―hollowed out to its barest essentials‖, remarks Martin Lau concluding his analysis of this Act, ―it cannot be dismissed as a mere window dressing to satisfy a Western audience”.(p.8)

The speaker in the last stanza repents in these lines that, “When you talk in your dreams, I have to listen, lying awake. But no dreams listens To my wakeful words”.(stanza-5)

The above lines illustrate that when the speaker’s husband speaks in his dreams, it was her duty to listen to his words by lying awake or without sleep. But she regrets that no one listens to her wakeful words/ no one respects her conscious compositions. Here she argues that society helps and supports men to get them the forefathers' superiority over women and to make women dependent, unequal, and even to lower than men with no dignity and status in the society.

Arshad quotes Behn and argues that “There is too much domestic violence against women that has no end. One women's rights group in Pakistan says the number of incidents of violence against women in Pakistan has increased at least seven percent over the past year, and the impact of violent gender discrimination is being deeply felt in several ways”. (p.8)

Arshad argues by quoting Shahnaz Khan‘s (2011) The Butterfly’s Cage, that it is a shocking example of the society that marginalized its women to such an extent that lives of millions of women in Pakistan got circumscribed by traditions which enforce extreme seclusion and submission to men, many of whom impose their virtually proprietorial control over women with violence (Amnesty International, 1998). It is worth mentioning that 2,713 cases of violence against women were reported only in Southern Punjab from January 2012 to October 2012. While out of 4,585 'reported' cases of violence against women in Pakistan during the first half of this year, about 1,027 incidents happened in Sindh. (p.8)

Pakistan, a Muslim country follows Islam as their religion. In a national review, Dennis Prager argues that, The Muslims main aim of life is to submit their will to God. But this idea conflicts with left wing wishful thinking that all cultures are equal. And thus, virtually every left-wing professor and books writes that Islam means peace. (to an extent that it has any connection to the word for peace (salaam) it is the peace that ensures after all of humanity has submitted to Islam). The amount of left-wing reality denial concerning the Islamic world is about equal to the number of assertions leftists make about it. And further he says that, it is also a reality, not an expression of misogyny, that men see the objects of their sexual desire as…sexual objects. But this is painful for feminists.

The research argues that the context in which Kishwar wrote her poems was the period of Zia-ul-Haq, where women had no freedom to participate in any field. Now, it is not the fault of islam; that gives equal rights to women and men. It the sin of the ruler who destroyed their citizens rights without a small amount of mercy. He neither submitted his will to God nor to his people as a ruler. He rather taken away the freedom of people and created chaos in the country. His rule was against Haq; that is truth, justice. In the same way the other dominative men used their power in a wrong way, like their ruler, and subordinated their women, and in fact used them as an object, that can be seen clearly in the poems of Kishwar Naheed.

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Another poem with a similar theme of cardinal violence is A Story where the poet Kishwar demonstrates that how a man from his childhood to youth and again from his youth to his old age become and remain the same cruel and aggressive to woman and demands to obey for his superiority in the society. This poem is also from the collection of poetry. There are six poems in this collection. And A Story is the fifth poem from it. All these poems are filled with extraordinary ideas of Naheed, where she through her poetry tried to fight against the injustices done towards women. And her poetic themes are related to global feminist ideologies which further help to fight against the unusual acts of dominators who victimized their women.

In the poem, A Story Kishwar portrays the unequal relationships between man and woman. She satirizes that unhealthy or hierarchical relationships of couples lead to ruin their happiness forever. The subordination of women and the superiority of men not only perished each other's lives but also creates a global disturbance. She informs all her readers to maintain equality and justice for all (women), not for namesake, but in an actual sense to maintain true peace in the world.

“A child is rocking On a toy horse. The horse is wood And unaware of the touch. He thrashes it And for his mastery Like himself.”

The poet uses a metaphor of ‘toy horse’ which was compared to the woman in the poem. She says in the first line that 'a child is rocking on a toy horse; a male child who desires to get a toy horse and after his successes, rocks on it by playing and showing his superiority on it. The speaker says that the toy horse was made up of wood and the child was unaware of its touch, in the same way, the boy was not aware of the sufferings and tortures which he gave to the horse and he thrashed it for his mastery over it/objects.

“He grows to be a man, Rides the wooden horse again, And declares his youth by a ceremony. With the passage of the night the horse is transformed.”

When he grows to be a man then he desires again and rides the real wooden horse and then announces his youth with a great ceremony; the speaker says that when a boy turns to be a young man he will get married to a beautiful lady and this lady again becomes a toy for his youth age. The last two lines of the above stanza, where the speaker argues that for some time in the night the woman would change into horse and again horse as an object changes into woman, for him and he begins to play with it. Here speaker criticizes the dominance of man over woman and objectification of her body to victimize in the hands of her husband. She questions the dominative traditions of the country that liberate their men and suppress their women by assigning no rights.

Arshad quotes Mahmood in his article to draw the authority of Pakistan who wrote the culture on the bodies of women, he writes that,

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"The legacy of the pre-independence tradition violence and persistence of authoritarianism in Pakistani politics (Talbot, 1999) paved way for religious orthodoxy as well because it also demands authority of one (male) on the other (female). These factors are also accountable for social unrest and despondency and they manifested themselves in two different forms of male dominance and commodification on women‘s body and mind to such a measure that ―sharply limit [ted] our ability to understand and interrogate the lives of women whose desire, affect, and will have been shaped by non- liberal traditions”.(p.7)

Further, the speaker in the last lines humiliates the man with the lines,

“But he who beat it, Who likes himself, Remains the same: Master, rider, husband.” (p-15)

She argues that He/ the man never changes his cruel attitudes and behaviors to horse/woman. He who beat it harshly, and the horse/ woman, who bared his tortures and punishments, remains the same. He liked himself, and neither showed piety on the horse when he was a child nor on a woman when he became a man. He was the same cruel man, never changed from his childhood to old age. Remained the same cruel master who is desirous and do for his benefits.

The same rider who rocked on the toy horse when he played, ride on it/ ruled on a woman in his young age, aware but doesn't show piety and sympathy to her at his young age. He remained the same husband, who won over her arguments, who destroyed her dignity, and status in the society for his status and became cruel and aggressive like a horse rider.

She examines and questions the validity of laws, be they Sharia laws or social practices that dishonor women, and construes that both systems of justice marginalize and imprison women in their web of authoritarianism. It demonstrates how Kishwar Naheed, in writing poetry that consistently depicted women as existing on the margins of their society, participated in their social rebirth. ( Arshad Masood Hashmi).

But the less consciousness of Kishwar in the Islamic religion made her go against it. The idea of woman rights more clearly prescribed in Islam than other religions. It speaks about each and everything about women's rights. It gives rights to save girl child, to get consent from a girl while marrying, it also gives rights to property, divorce, Khula the religion speaks more for women's rights rather than men. Overall it gives more equality than the said equality of the constitutions. But the authoritarian rule in the name of Islam has replaced their cruel laws on women in Pakistan, particularly at the time of Zia-ul-Haq’s period. Men were more dominative than the present day to control women in all spheres. No women were allowed to speak against the rule, neither they were asked to get educated and work outside. The impact of his rule made most of the people in Pakistan to mistaken about the Islam religion.

Whereas, Kishwar Naheed's understanding of women's challenges is very much praised worthy. She portrays the reality of her time in her poetry. The male-centric views were appreciated and welcomed by the authoritarian rule of Zia Ul-Haq. And women were imprisoned under the four walls as mute, blind, and deaf. They were tortured by both the authoritarian rule as well as by their male partners. It has satirized very well in her poetry.

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Kishwar Naheed's creativity, spanning more than four decades started from the voice of a secluded and marginalized woman's reactions to the world around her. Fraught with feminist ideas, doubts, and depressions, being haunted by the voices of resistance and rebellion her poetic career, slowly and effectively, culminated into the quest for humanity forsaking the distinctions between men and women.

Arshad tries to show the violence against women by the first bi-annual report (January- June, 2012) of Aurat Foundation reveals that regardless of wide-ranging efforts to control honor-killing incidents, 436 such cases were reported besides 435 rape and gang rape cases (Imran, October 23, 2012). Article 1, 1993 of the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women describes the term violence against women as ―…any act of gender- based violence that results in or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, compulsion or uninformed denial of freedom, whether stirring in public or in private life. (p.8)

Arshad argues by bringing Jafri’s statement that,

“These include cases of aas-aaf custom (10) – in which women accused of bringing shame to the family' take an oath of innocence on the Holy Quran and then walk on burning coals spread over six meters , abduction and torture after the abduction (577), acid attacks (20), burning by throwing kerosene oil and petrol (17), kaala kaali [kara kari/ summary killing] (25), assault after divorce (45), assault by in-laws (100), honour’ killings (112), murder and assault for contracting a marriage with their free will (114), murder (162), victims of panchayat decisions where women were either sold or killed (37), rape (304), assault by police (20), suicide in reaction to family pressure, rape or other forms of violence (444), torture leading to physical or mental disability (489), wani [child marriage] (37), watta satta [exchanging brides between two families] (25) and cases of gender discrimination and disinheritance (175)”. (p.8)

Right from severe consequences of the Hudood Ordinance to the socially structured gender apartheid, there is a unceasing phenomenon of discounting women in the name of a cultural doctrine, tolerance, anti-racism, diversity, or political correctness (Chesler, 2010). Based on the investigations of the pervasive problem of violence against women in Pakistan's two largest cities, Karachi and , Human Rights Watch (1999) observed that notwithstanding the harshness of the problem, the government's response has been indifferent at best; it has served to intensify the suffering of women victims of violence and to block the course of justice. ( Arshad Masood Hashmi, p.8-9)

Naheed’s poetry is a call of equality, liberty between women and men relationships. Her poetry awakes the consciousness of the readers; specifically of women readers, to stand for their rights. Her poetry is a voice of the marginalized and secluded women of Pakistan but at the same time, it becomes the voice of the global women community. The above select poems are the description of man and women's unequal relationships. violence, injustice, illiteracy, inequality are few of the punishments that have given to women as their gift for becoming a woman. Naheed in these poems portrays the women’s anger and their desire to prove that women are equal to men. Her poetry plays a significant role in constructing women's history through their personal as well as public experiences.

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This idea of carnal fierceness is well portrayed by Naheed in her poems. She like other feminists fought against the ideology of patriarchs who observe women as a commodity, slave, inferior to men, cruel, aggressive, and tried to represent her as the soft-hearted, creative, participative, and noble. Naheed also collects her harsh experiences that took place in her life. Such as her childhood days, her married life, her attempts to bring revolution, her obscenity charges against her poetry, her professional life, etc., all these mixtures of experiences make her a creative writer of Pakistan. Ahmad argues that,

“When states, societies, and families fail to safeguard the rights of a person or a group, literature stands sentinel to protect those rights braising voice against injustices and atrocities…it generated conflicts, with tradition and to some extent, religion, as interpreted by men and expressed in fundamentalist Islam" (Ahmad, 1990. P.7).

Women like Naheed struggled against the authoritarian rule, a feudalistic and cruel culture of Pakistan that controlled women and these feminists through their discourse attempted to free women from male dominative traditions. Their experiences are very well portrayed in words, images to reconstruct their true identity.

There are many women experiences collected in the books and articles so rapidly that yet there is an emergency needed to be taken to empower women globally. India, Pakistan, and other places around the world are still enveloped in thousands of myths and traditions that stereotype women and continue to carry the traditional culture by the help of conservative women, therefore, it is essential to deconstruct these decayed traditions of patriarchs and remove women from marginalization, subordination, social, religious and domestic restrictions to make use of their identity, liberty, and equality.

References

[1] Ahmad, R. Ed. We Sinful Women: Contemporary Urdu Feminist Poetry. The Women’s Press, London.1990. [2] Ananatharam, A. (2009). Engendering The Nation: Women, Islam, And Poetry In Pakistan. Journal Of International Women’s Studies. 11, 1.PP. 208-224. [3] Hashmi, Arshad Masood. The Impure Woman: Marginality and Detachment in the Poetry of Kishwar Naheed. Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies. Vl. 2, Issue. 3, March. 2014. PP.6-16.ISSN: 2321-8819. www.ajms.co.in. [4] Naheed, Kishwar. A Story. “The Prince of Looking Back”. Trans by. Baidaa Bakht and Derek M. Cohen.PP.15, Manushi, no.37, 1986. N.P. [5] Naheed, Kishwar. The Rain Within Myself. “The Prince of Looking Back”. Trans by. Baidaa Bakht and Derek M. Cohen. PP.14, Manushi, no.37, 1986. N.P.

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