Shame

Sufiya Zinobia represents the shame of Pakistan's discrimination of women, through her experiences as a first born child, being a woman. Being from Pakistan, Sufiya knows being born into a family as a first born, and a women, that this is something than brings shame upon her family. Not only was her dad disappointed, but her own mother treated her like she brought shame upon the family. From the beginning of the novel you notice how shameful it is to have daughters. Old Mr. Shakil had three daughters, keeping them locked up away from the world out of shame. They grew up with each other always fantasizing and making up their own languages. On his dying day his eldest daughter asked if they were going to be rich now, he yelled back "whores, the dying man cursed them, don't count on it."(6). This is how low women were really thought of in Pakistan. In Shame "a Pakistani father, murdered his only child, a daughter, because making love to a white boy brought such dishonor upon her family that only her blood could wash away the stain."(117) Being a woman, or daughter in Pakistan is just was Sufiya was to her parents, shame, that same shame that she represents to Pakistan, that of being a woman. It is known from the beginning of the book that the shame that Sufiya possesses will bring about about violence in this story. Sufiya blushes whenever even noticed, because she does not want others to notice her. At one point she almost commits suicide, which is the ultimate shame and violence. McLeod mentions how important women are to nationality, something that Shame does not recognize "we are reminded that women are participants in national, economic, political and military struggles, contrary to many nationalist representations which depict women in a supportive and nurturing relation to men". (139) McLeod goes on to talk about how women supported and were part of the decolonization and resist patriarchy. Pakistan at a time when women meant nothing, needed to realize that women were not their shame, just looking for a way to belong and help along the way.


Rushdie talks about the strange things women were not allowed to do in this video. He discusses how women were not allowed to dress Westernized underneath their burkas. If a woman was wearing a skirt her thighs would rub against each other making sexual friction and this heat would be shown through their eyes. He talks about how ludacris this is. He also talks about incest and what is okay and what is not okay. Things you are not able to control is not incest. They even went so far as to say if your aunt lived upstairs and floor broke and the aunt ended up in ones bed, that no man could restrain them self.