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 poets of Pakistan, 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 women in Pakistan 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 Feminism, Marriage, Carnal Fierceness, Authoritarian Rule, Patriarchy. Introduction Kishwar Naheed a major poet of Pakistan is famous for her feminist ideologies in her Urdu 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, Volume 8, Issue 3, 2020 http://aegaeum.com/ Page No: 1216 AEGAEUM JOURNAL ISSN NO: 0776-3808 “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 India 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 Volume 8, Issue 3, 2020 http://aegaeum.com/ Page No: 1217 AEGAEUM JOURNAL ISSN NO: 0776-3808 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) Volume 8, Issue 3, 2020 http://aegaeum.com/ Page No: 1218 AEGAEUM JOURNAL ISSN NO: 0776-3808 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.