'“I am not that woman” by Kishwar Naheed Essay\r'

'Kishwar Naheed, a contemporary Urdu Pakistani poet was born in 1940 in a Syed family of Uttar Pradesh, India. She moved to Pakistan during the partition of sub-continent in 1947. subsidence d have got in the mercenary environment of Pakistan, she had to struggle in order to take a crap education. She studied at home and sure a high school lambskin and went on to receive a master degree in Economics from Punjab University. She win m whatever prizes which atomic number 18 a check of her high literary status. She achieved this high stand in the literary piece be make turn out of the uncensored utter of her fight against her parliamentary law. Being a part of the partition of subcontinent, Naheed witnessed harassment against women and its moment is greatly reflected as we work through women seduction the principal(prenominal) focus of Naheed’s rhyme. Naheed’s metrical compositions â€Å"I Am Not That charr” and â€Å"The Grass Is Re tot each(pre nominal)yy Like Me” component part the everyplacelook of dignity and respect felt up by the females and how they come to terms with it.\r\n feminist movement creation Naheed’s forte is the main basis of the dickens songs. Naheed highlights how females argon decrease to mere fair games of give with their emotions put aside, atomic number 18 apply for physical satiation, and then puts a room the groundwork of Commodification. though robbed off the proficient of opinion by men she sub refer fitd hopes for a better life with embody rights to men introducing the etymon of Optimism in her poems. Fathers, br opposites and husbands being responsible for the stamp down life a female spends as they ar her unpatriotic guardians and k lighters of her in readyaldom as well, takes bureau to the theme of Male jingoism. Though making an bm of difficult to vacate and throwing away the shackles that restrain their movement some weak women cede themselves in the hands of the edict therefrom bothowing it to control their life, displaying the theme of Reification in one of the two poems.\r\nNaheed genuinely skilfully has make use of poetical devices inter motley suitable Con nonation, Symbols, Metaphors and avatar to heighten the impact of her kernel in the two poems. Discrimination on the part of women was the focus of her attention scarce obscure from being the witness to the force done to women in the partition of subcontinent, the hurt on the part of women in the Zia government activity was besides a primer coat of her women subjection being her main focus. General Zia ul Haq’s military dictatorship, Martial Law which lasted from 1977 to 1988 profoundly shaped Naheed’s profess against the unfounded subjugation that was contrived on the old bags of State- dominion of women’s bodies and sexualities under Zia’s application of the hudood Ordinances beginning in 1979.\r\nWomen were depr ived of their due rights and direct off though the ordinance appe atomic number 18d to safety device women from harassment, the passing of the Law of Evidence in 1983 reduced a cleaning fair sex’s testimony in a lawcourt of law to half the value of a man and the implications of such laws on women are worth exploring briefly because in publications of itch and sexual violence (zina) women were profoundly affected. charge if, as Anita Weiss (1985) nones in her study of the women’s movement in Pakistan, the punishment meted pop to offenders of zina regard slight of sex was constitutionally the selfsame(prenominal) (p. 8), since women’s causation of testimony in zina cases was inadmissible in court, the legislation of zina in feature had serious gender biases construct into it. Anita Weiss in her article â€Å"Women in Pakistan: Implications of the veritable Program of Islamization” tells that when women were convicted for zina offences there was little elbow room for appeal; men, by the same token, were by and large acquitted.\r\nWhile the Hudud Ordinances would check severe repercussions for women’s social rest in Pakistan, this moment in Pakistani political history amidst the age of 1977-1988 would mark, for the startle time, women’s direct appointment and protest against the state’s regulation of the hadd (singular of hudud) punishments especially as it concerned women’s bodies and sexualities. Zia ul Haq came up with such laws to cause a step-by-step reduction of women’s power in matters of economic, legal, and educational representation. Confining women to their shacks did non break in women desire Naheed. She in her own ways finished her poe essay protested against the governance and the crazy laws passed out under the Zia regime. Though back then open protest against the authorities was considered illegal, Naheed was unstoppable in voicing her point. Fearless Nahee d reached out to all women and not to a particular class and her poetry jolted the complacency in her population as she showed mirror to the men and move them in their seats as their injustice towards women was captured by Naheed in poetry for homo beings viewing.\r\nPoetry written for a cause reached out to the hearts of m whatsoever. â€Å"I am not that woman” and â€Å"The rotter is genuinely like me” are such examples. â€Å"I am not that woman” is virtually women addressing the males of the society. She is drawing a line between herself and the degraded women who appear in advertisements and their lulu is used as a jibe of selling the products. She pleads I am a respectable woman who won’t al pitiful her to get insulted by men. She says that even though the men make them sojourn imprisoned in spite of appearance the four walls of their house, charm they esteem life roaming liberal as breeze, even then a woman cannot be silenced and she would speak for her rights. She similarly says that her husband has suppressed her under the constraints of baseless traditions and used her for lovemaking and to bear children who turn over up to disrespect their mothers equally simply still it won’t stop her from shining and that this oppression cannot mar her hopes of a life that she deserves.\r\nParents are also impeach of marrying off their daughters just to timbre light of a burden and to fulfill their concern just she says that the actual need is not only fulfilling duties but to change to conservative mindset of the society which presently do not seem to change. The real first stanza implies the theme of ‘Feminism’ being highlighted as the opening of the poem has a very declarative woodland to it and a savour which tells men to preserve her separate from the insulted girls in advertisements â€Å"selling you shoes and socks”. Further it melodic phrases the assure of a woman who is c onfined within the four walls of her house while her husband is allowed to have all the put downdom of the foundation as it tells that he roamed â€Å"free as the breeze”. As Kishwar Naheed is known to give theatrical role to the voiceless women so the theme of this very first paragraph seems very familiar to any Asian reader.\r\nThe reason is that it has described the very dilemma that women of the Asian societies have to face that is they are taught and evaluate the whole of their lives to stay within the boundaries of her house because of the culture that prevails which does not allow women any progress and free leave. The pith put before in the very start of the poem has a feminist approach as feminism talks of the downtrodden males and females in a society but mainly it advocates the judgement of inferior position of females. Though the woman is suppressed still she gives out a essence that nothing can keep her from getting her rights. Here the theme of ‘Op timism’ is seen as Kishwar Naheed has put ship the picture of a suppressed woman has been stated already but the oppression has not been able to beat down the hope that rather or later she would be able to enjoy the life of free pass on that she deserves as she says in the first stanza that â€Å"…my voice cannot be smothered by s sounds” and she says in the second stanza also that â€Å"I am the one in whose lap you picked be giveners… position thorns and embers…cannot smother my fragrance”.\r\nIt tells that even though her husband stole away all the happiness in her life and all she got in return of the suffering were insolent children but even they won’t be able to stop her from rising. It’s the males which prevent females from rising further in the poem the theme of ‘Male Chauvinism’ also surfaces. This is a very utilisationary give birth of the Asian societies that no matter how uncultured and disloyal th e male passport of family is it is still his orders that are carried out and all the rules and regulations according to the social conventions are to be come outed by the women and none of them apply to a male as it says â€Å"I am the one you grim with the weight if custom and tradition”.\r\nWomen completely crushed are merely reduced to objects of use and then grownup space to the theme of ‘Commodification’ in the poem. The theme of Commodification is also very derive in the poem. Commodification refers to the concept where an individual’s value is reduced merely to that of an object of use plus its feeling are not interpreted care of as it says â€Å"I am the woman whom you bought and change in the name of my own virtue”. She considers their marriage as a necessitate where his husband got hold of her in the form of a loyal object everlasting(a) from inside without even thinking that she suffered breathing out in this deal as she did no t get a partner she deserved. At another point she says that â€Å"I am the commodity you traded in, my chastity, my motherhood, my loyalty.” She says that her husband had been making unfair use of her totalness and that she still unplowed on being a good wife and a mother disregarding the fact that his husband never do an travail to please her. Naheed has very skilfully used certain poetic devices in her poem which nurture the impact of her message.\r\n poetical devices in the poem the main feature is that this poem is written in free verse. Free verse is a form of poetry that does not use unvarying meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern it thereof tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech. It does not aim any set meter but still it involves a carefully crafted enunciate picture. The first poetic device she has do use of is connotation. Connotation involves the emotional, psychological or social overtones of a word; its implications and associati ons apart from its literal substance. The word ‘smothered’ has been used as a connotation as smothered basically means to compensate an object closely or obtusely and it also means to stifle or suffocate. This word is used here in connection with smothering the voice of the girl. If taken the dictionary meaning of the word is not usually used in seed to a voice but it being used in this context reinforces the theme of suffocating women within the four walls thus suppressing her right to have her own say in the society.\r\nThe word ‘crushed’ is also used a connotation as the dictionary meaning of crushed is to credit crunch and deform an object but crushed used with reference to traditions and customs helps to enhance the misery that a female suffers through with(predicate) the baseless customs and traditions. Another poetic device used is the use of symbols. The symbols thorns and handcuffs in the second stanza assert the message of the discomforts t hat his husband had been treating her with. These symbols tell describe their severity. It’s a short poem with a very few poetic devices. She has do use of a simile in the first stanza. A simile is a direct comparison of two conflicting things using â€Å"like” or â€Å"as. She says â€Å"free as the breeze”. It tells that her husband was allowed to enjoy the freedom of going out and had aught to stop him. In the third stanza she makes use of a metaphor.\r\nA metaphor is A direct comparison between two unlike things, stating that one is the other or does the action of the other. She says in the third stanza â€Å" walk on body of water”. No human possibly walk on water but the meaning that this metaphor is trying to convey is that this woman is a powerful willed person. She never loses hope despite the unbecoming conditions of her life and it tells that one day she will overcome all obstacles that come in the way of her freedom. â€Å"The grass is really like me” is another poem by Kiswar Naheed. This poem is also about the suppression of women. The source is comparing the grass with women and says that the only way that the straw of grass can suffer is by spreading itself under population’s feet and it implies the fact that the only way a woman can die in this world is also through spreading herself in front of all, meaning that she has no individual standing of her own. The poem also puts forward-moving the whim that the ones who lack courage are in fact the ones who are never able to rise from the ground.\r\nThe poet voices the grass and women by saying that they would not let anyone step over them and that the composition of creating a nerve tract instead of stepping over them is better but the poem ends with a sad note saying â€Å"the grass is really like me”. Here we see that the poet is being a realist and accepting the uninspired image of a woman as an underfoot. This poem has a similar t one to that of â€Å"I Am Not That charwoman”. Feminism here again is an orotund theme as it talks of the low status prone to the women as it gives a degrading image of the grass that has to â€Å" unfurl underfoot to fulfill; itself” . The poet is giving the belief that women have to lay themselves in obeisance in front of men and the society in order to survive. This image all the way gives the idea of the unequal status given to the males and females of a society and that how insultingly the females are treated.\r\nAlthough the women are treated unjustly but the poet by saying â€Å"Take my advice: the idea of making a footpath was tolerate” gives out the message that the females do feel bad and they do not deprivation men to step over them in order to walk instead they should change their brutal ways rather than devastating the females down thus bringing forward the theme of Individuality. The poem in its flow gives out a complete message termed as Reification. Reification is a tacit acceptance of the treatment provided by the superstructure that is the tyrants to the ones forming the base that is the victims. The poem starts by giving out the general situation of a suppressed woman in a society but then as she moves forward she gives the idea of using a footpath instead of crushing the grass she is giving the idea of having an laissez faire stating that women must try to rise but then as the poem ends with a sad tone saying that â€Å"The grass is really like me” tells that though asking the other women to be brave the poet is being a realist and she has surrendered in the hands of the society and accepting the ill treatment given to her by the males.\r\nA similar theme is found in the novel â€Å"Surfacing” by Margaret Atwood in which the unnamed protagonist of the novel seek to create her mark in the world but tired of doing so she surrenders to the puppeteers that is to say the authorities of religion, po litics and the patriarchs of the society thus making them control her life. This poem does not have any fixed meter as it is written in free verse and does not follow any fixed meter. Personification is used as a technique by the poet. Personification is attributing human characteristics to an inanimate object, animal, or knock off idea. The poet has compared women to the straws of grass. It defines the low status that the women have in this male dominated society and are reduced to objects to be kept at ground level. This poem has very less poetic devices. The symbol of â€Å"lawn owner” is a prominent one. It symbolizes the males of our society and how they are obsess with leveling women back to the ground level if they try to rise. Kishwar Naheed in both her poems has made women her main focus and how she fights to gain individuality and males making a constant attempt to make her fall to the ground.\r\n'