WOMEN AS A VICTIM OF PATRIARCHAL CONSTRUCT IN THE PAKISTANI BRIDE AND WATER

Abstract

Bapsi Sidwa an ambassador of Pakistan Literature is not only a story teller but an artist who has very enigmatically related the plight and exploitation of women in the patriarchal society. When we talk of ‘Feminism’ we refer to the movement which has played an important role in projecting the suppressed status of women in the patriarchal society. The term also signifies the emergence of the power of the women over the constructs of male dominance and a movement to acquire the equal rights of the women with men in all walks of life, social, moral, economic legal and so on. Men establish their masculinity and feel elated and victorious as aggressors whereas women endure the pain and barbarity with humiliation and subjugation. But Sidwa talks about the emancipation of women just as she has done in her real life so the women in her fictional world. Her characters are intelligent, beautiful, strong willed, courageous and modest and not rebellious. The parental, societal and psychological pressures seem to loom large in their lives but when they find their identity in danger, they throw off the shackles and try to counter the foul attempts of their adversaries with grit and determination. In The Pakistani Bride and Water both the novels Bapsi Sidwa talks about the marginalized persona of indigenous society whose position is cowed to the absolute minimum. She counters the domineering patriarchal discourse of Pakistani literature by providing an alternative image of a strong and confident female. The objective of this paper is to show the changes in the role of women corresponding to the social, economic, cultural and political changes in life and their struggle for self-emancipation so that they have the power to take decisions of their life without the support of others. In the twenty first century the works of women writers have tried to transform the social and psychological life of women.