Sunday, October 4, 2009
Education?
I have been wondering about the author's motive when looking at what has been written and where it happens. Well, first off I wonder why it is that Shaman's parents send her off to the school that they do, a very un-strict school in terms of Muslim religion, in the first place. Perhaps this is a consequence of the time and finding an all girls Muslim school is impossible, or was it just the way it was written. I wonder, and perhaps this is just obvious, had Shaman been sent to a very strict Muslim school would she have had all of these feelings? Could Chughtai have written the book in this way? Is it because she was given all this leeway in her place of education that she formed these thoughts? I have also been wondering how Chughtai got away with putting this book into print, after being tried for "The Quilt". This book is much more direct when dealing with the issues similar in "The Quilt". I don't think that if the setting was changed Chughtai would have gotten away with putting this book out there without a lot of backlash, perhaps there was some though, I guess that is something to research.
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Are we trying to imagine a world where Shaman goes to some kind of Thanawi led school? Where she reads the koran and nothing else...does she become a heavenly ornament? Could Shaman ever be Thanawi's ideal? Chugthai doesn't seem to think so (I think) because she gives Shaman an innate, feral nature...Shaman is clearly naturally id dominated (thought maybe all children are or out to be), and Chugthai gives other examples throughout the book that indicate that perhaps Shaman's denial of traditional womanhood is something that she must do, that her nature leaves her no choice.
ReplyDeleteHowever, we do also have to consider that her wild side later becomes tamed, or at least, conditioned by society...so we can't rule out entirely the idea of Shaman as one of Thanawi's ideals.