Character of Sufiya Zinobia - “Shame i

Character of Sufiya Zinobia

        “Shame is more compact than other novels of Rushdie. It is a three dimensional novel- political, social and cultural. It is a story of the rise and fall of three families, three sisters and three queens- Biquis, Sufiya and Naveed. The tree sisters are Chummy, Munee and Bunny. The three countries are Pakistan, Bangladesh and India.

         

          Shame is about what happened to the other half of the sub-content after 1947. It depicts the contemporary political situation in Pakistan. The main plot of the novel revolves around the lives of Omar Khayyam Shakil and Sufiya Zinobia. The society in Pakistan is by and large repressive. It is a society which is authoritarian in its social and sexual code which cruses its women beneath the intolerable burdens of honour and proprietary.

Sufiya; The personification of Shame

          Here Omar and his wife, Sufiya live in the shameful world of illusions and fanaticism. They can not enjoy the pleasures of Islamic scriptures. Omar is not a true Muslim. Sufiya also feels ashamed of her childish way of thinking though she is a young woman. The novelist calls her a wrong miracle. She never grows up in intellect. She is the personification of Shame. She blushes at the slightest shameful things. The best of shame grows stronger gradually in her. She kills Pinky’s turkey birds and also tries to kill Talvar Ulhaq. Later she becomes a dangerous woman in veil wandering at night and killing bad boys after satisfying her sexual lust. When Omar reports this matter to her father, Raza Hyder, he wants to put an end of her life. Here also it is a matter of Shame that a father wants to kill his daughter. Her Husband also chains her so that she may not be a danger to other.

Sufiya; a product of Cultural Climate:-

          The heroine Sufiya Zinobia represents ‘Disorder of Pak society. She is a product of the cultural climate. Her violence seems to be blind and pointless, but is also illustrated well known historical truth about dictatorship rule in Pakistan. The novel portrays a girl who suffers excessively from the emotion of shame.  Individually speaking, it does not happen so in normal conditions. At times she represents mob violence, a rumour, a beast the collective fantasy of oppressed people and a dream born of her rage. Referring to the character of Sufiya, Rushdie remarks, ‘Here you have to make connection between shame and violence. If you push the people too far and if you humiliate them too much then a kind of violence bursts out of them I wanted to enclose that idea inside one person Sufiya. 

Victim of Male Violence

          Sufiya represents the effort to imagine a different outcome for women are the victims of male violence. Both the murderer East End girl and the other beaten on the underground train wear their silence as badges of shame. Although the punishing hand of the father secures one of the silencing emblems, the other is self imposed. She is an exceptional woman because she not only feel her own shame but also the unfelt shame of others, men in particular. Men are forbidden to feel shame that would destroy their price.  This means that they hold their head high only disavowing their shameful actions.