Grassroots, Vol.52, No.

II July-December 2018

ANALYSIS OF PATRIARCHAL PRESSURES AND THE STRUGGLE OF A

PAKISTAN WOMAN IN MY FEUDAL LORD

Hassan Bin Zubair

Fahmida Aslam
Mashooq Ali Khowaja

ABSTRACT
This research paper explores the social class differences, issues of oppression
related to Pakistani women and role of agency presented in the autobiographical
text My Feudal Lord by Tehmina Durrani. This research is qualitative in nature with
textual analysis. Theoretical framework for this research is based on Deniz
Kandiyoti’s theory, Pactical Bargain; which also relates the post-colonial feminism,
Muslim and western feminism. This paper presents the condition of Pakistani Muslim
women in the society under the influence of political pressures. It also discusses the
fight to gain the basic women rights and struggle for agency. There is always a
patriarchal pressure on the South Asian Women, about which Tehmina Durrani has
tried to present the real condition of Muslim Pakistani women. Durrani’s
autobiographical element in the text enhances its importance in the presentation of
the truths and figures. This research provides the clear picture to what extent they
get the agency and basic women rights for them. In this research paper, male
dominance, gender inequality and high level political influence remains under
scrutiny.
_______________

Keywords: Muslim Women, Oppression, Pakistani Culture, Agency, Politics,

Society.

INTRODUCTION
Tehmina Durrani’s My Feudal Lord is the feminist autobiographical
book that had created controversy during its publications in 1991. This novel
was also criticized, rejected and banned in Egypt and Pakistan. She wrote
about certain explicit details and painful truths about Muslim women’s
plights that were greatly considered as taboos before and during the nineties’
Muslim societies. However, it was such a struggle for Tehmina that even her
father disowned her after the novel’s publication. This tendency of
criticizing, rejecting and banning women authors’ narratives can be
explained through Taslima Nasreen’s words. She argues that people who
speak against such writings “are insecure misogynists” (Nasreen, 2017).
“This misogyny or male insecurity is only a symptom of the disease that is
patriarchy. Until society gets rid of this malady, the symptoms will remain”
(Nasreen, 2017). There is a myth that a Muslim woman cannot be a feminist,
she is either a Muslim or a feminist, because, feminism is in favor of
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emancipation, whereas, Islam, as most people wrongly perceive, is an

oppressive religion (Chavura, 2017). Hence, these two opposites cannot
become one. However, this is a complete misconception, especially among
the Western feminists. For example, if the Western feminists see Muslim
women wearing a veil or a “hijab”, they think they are highly subjugated.
Actually, the truth is, if someone thinks the veil as an oppressing agent, then
a simple veil can become burdensome and can create hindrance towards a
woman’s progress. On the contrary, if a Muslim woman thinks that a veil
gives her the spiritual power by complying with the Islamic sharia or law,
then that simple veil can become a useful tool for emancipation. It is actually
the varied perspectives and perceptions that lead to such controversies. The
truth is, Islam is not an oppressive religion at all and wearing veil does not
make a woman subjugated. Only the willingness of accepting and complying
with the rules of Islam is what women need in order to feel empowered both
at home and outside. Thus, Stephen Chavura rightly states, “One thing is
certain: the notion that Islam and contemporary feminism are mutually
compatible…..” (Chavura, 2017).
The struggles for Muslim women writers are even harder because they
take up a profession that is something out of the list of few jobs considered as
suitable for women. This is so, because language is male dominated. In
relation to this, Nasrullah Mambrol explains French feminist, Helen Cixous’
theory of “ecriture feminine”. According to Cixous, Mambrol writes,
“Writing is also structured by a “sexual opposition,” one that favoured the
male and reduced writing to his laws” (Mambrol, 2017). Male writers are
free to write whatever they want to, but this is not the same for women
authors. Women use the men’s language in order to portray their experiences
and stories to the world. Hence, they get very limited freedom through
writings. “The need is thus for a woman’s writing, one that will be a flow of
luminous torrents, excess, never-ending and open, without hierarchy,
repressive logic or control” (Mambrol, 2017). Nasrulla Mambrol then
explains Helen Cixious’ term, “ecriture feminine” by quoting her, it is “a
feminine writing practice, Cixous suggests that such a feminine writing can
never be theorized enclosed, coded” (Mambrol, 2017). Thus, “The
subversiveness of scripture feminine is the rejection of such a repressive
binary logic of man/woman, theoretical/creative, nature/culture, and
inside/outside and therefore of the reality the logic represents. The stories
need to be retold without the oppressive logic of patriarchal society”
(Mambrol, 2017). The reasons and the effects of patriarchy on Muslim
females starting from their childhood to adulthood are profound. It is not that
Muslim girl children and women always remain subjugated under patriarchy
or male dominance. Rather, after a certain point, these females become
rebellious to some extent if not fully. They often gain their agency that is not
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given to them but it emerges out of conditions. They struggle and persevere,
only then do they get their honor and recognition in their society. There are
many prolific female writers and poets from South Asian and Middle Eastern
countries who have been breaking this dominating tradition since many
decades and recently Indian female novelists, such as, Ismat Chugtai, Chitra
Banerjee Divakaruni, Arundhati Roy, etc. There are also Pakistani female
authors, such as, Bapsi Sidhwa, Kamila Shamsie, Tehmina Durrai, etc.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
 To present the struggle of Pakistani Muslim women to gain their basic
women rights and agency.
 To highlight the issues related to the political pressure and patriarchal
oppression on women in Pakistan.
 To investigate the acceptability of the specific autobiographical
elements and points presented by Tehmina Durrani in My Feudal Lord.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. How has Tehmina Durrani presented the real women struggle under
the extreme patriarchal and political pressures in Pakistani society in
her autobiography My Feudal Lord?
2. How has the writer projected her narrative about oppression,
correlation between struggle and agency in Pakistani male dominant
society?
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This paper is rather, based on patriarchy, and in order to analyze this
issue, it focuses on various types of feminism, such as, postcolonial
feminism, Muslim feminism and Western feminism. For theoretical
grounding, I will look at the Turkish author and academic researcher, Deniz
Kandiyoti’s paper, “Bargaining with Patriarchy”. It is also important to
consider how the factors such as, religion, nationality, gender, culture, etc
intertwine or intersect in order to investigate and produce the exact image of
the Muslim women in Middle Eastern and South Asian patriarchal nations.
This research is qualitative in nature, it investigates the reasons and the
effects of patriarchy on Muslim females starting from their childhood to
adulthood are profound under this specific theoretical framework. It is not
that Muslim girl children and women always remain subjugated under
patriarchy or male dominance. Rather, after a certain point, these females
become rebellious to some extent if not fully. They often gain their agency
that is not given to them but it emerges out of conditions. They struggle and
persevere, only then do they get their honor and recognition in their society.
Otherwise, they remain the weak, silent beings who do not have any choice
and right of their own.

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ANALYSIS
Tehmina Durrani, the Pakistani author of the autobiography, My
Feudal Lord, was also the victim of “cultural, social, religious, patriarchal,
gender and sexual oppressions, despite the fact that she belongs to an affluent
family with influential political background” (Nadaf, 2015). She also faced
discrimination when she was a child, and that was from her mother’s side.
She had a “difficult childhood relationship” with her mother (Durrani,
1995:129). Her mother, Samina, has Anglicized family as she “came from
the Hayat family of Khattar tribe” (Kaur, 2016:35). Hence, she has fair
complexion. However, her daughter, Tehmina, has dark complexion. Her
family criticized her for her dark skin; especially her mother never used to
adore her. About this Tehmina writes, “Only over time would I come to
understand what a shock I was to my mother. She was light-skinned beauty
and proud of it; her family was fair-skinned and considered itself to be
superior by that fact. A dark child was condemned to neglect. And yet there I
was, arriving in the world in 1953, with a dark skin. It seemed evident by my
mother’s attitude that she regarded me as ugly and was embarrassed to
present me to friends and relatives. Even as a baby I felt my inadequacy. My
surroundings seemed hostile to the way I looked, and very early I withdrew
into an isolated, ‘condemned-by-nature’ cell. I never remember my mother
hugging or kissing me when I was little (Durrani, 1995:23). This is because,
in Pakistan, like in many other countries, a woman with dark skin color is not
eligible for marriage. Pakistani men tend to choose fairer skinned wife. This
tendency of giving little importance to women with dark skin is aggravated
due to the racism weaved within the community. According to Maria Sartaj,
“the theory being that a fair bahu will produce fair grandchildren, which will
ultimately lead to a gora Pakistan!” (Sartaj, 2015). For this reason,
Tehmina’s mother also taunted her own daughter most of the time.
Conversely, her father loved her, but because of her mother’s command, he
was unable to show his affection towards his daughter. Only her maternal
grandmother, Shamshad, took her sides every time she fell into troubles.
These above examples portray that being within her home, Tehmina
could not be her own self because of her mother’s strictness. This kind of
extreme strictness is also a kind of mental torture. Her suppressed self was
unbearable to the extent of becoming mad. Tehmina observes: “There was no
question of discovering oneself. Identity and individuality were crushed.
Personality failed to develop. My mind became a sanctuary for secret
thoughts of escaping from this household. But for that, there was no other
goal but marriage.” (Durrani, 1995:30)
Thus, we observe that at a very tender age, Tehmina was constantly
under pressure to live up to her mother’s expectations and in case of her
inability to do so, made her suffer from inferiority complex. Her mother’s

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strictness towards her children, especially towards Tehmina, is perhaps due

to the social demand. This means, living in a Muslim country, such as,
Pakistan, a girl is expected to be within her limits and suppress her childish
enthusiasm so that she could grow up as an obedient woman. We may relate
this to what Simone de Beauvoir says, “One is not born, but rather becomes,
a woman” (Beauvoir, 1997:295). However, we all know that being adults, we
cannot expect such strict obedience from any child, but as the society expects
girl children and women to always remain under total subjugation just like
slaves, the mothers also push their daughters to follow the patriarchy. We
may relate this to what Simone de Beauvoir says, “One is not born, but rather
becomes, a woman” (Beauvoir, 1997:295).
According to Laura Maguire, this statement by Beauvoir means, “the
roles we associate with women are not given to them in birth, by virtue of
their biology, but rather are socially constructed. Women are taught what
they’re supposed to be in life, what kind of roles they can or can’t perform in
virtue of being of the second sex” (Maguire, 2016). Beauvoir has given
childhood a place in her book, The Second Sex, because childhood is the
early phase of gender construction, and it is during this childhood phase that
the socialization of boy and girl takes place. Another reason for her mother’s
strictness towards her children could be the “patriarchal bargains” as Deniz
Kandiyoti terms it (Kandiyoti, 1988:285). Even though Tehmina’s father
never dominated her mother, rather she would every time command him, she
made a patriarchal bargain with her daughter. That is, as the culture and
society pressurized her to raise her children properly with full guidance, she
herself perhaps found it too much to comply. She even said that she felt
ashamed to present Tehmina to her friends and relatives because of her dark
skin. Thus, Kandiyoti explains, in classic patriarchy women “often adhere as
far and as long as they possibly can to rules that result in the unfailing
devaluation of their labor” (Kandiyoti, 1988:280). “The cyclical nature of
women’s power in the household and their anticipation of inheriting the
authority of senior women encourage a thorough internalization of this form
of patriarchy by the women themselves. In classic patriarchy, subordination
to men is offset by the control older women attain over younger women”
(Kandiyoti, 1988:279).
Tehmina’s second husband, Mustafa also did not spare his daughters
from his brutality. Tehmina heard the stories from the servants that when
Mustafa’s daughter from his fifth wife, Sherry, “howled as he tried to sleep,
Mustafa picked her up and shoved her under the bed!” (Durrani, 1995:113).
He was equally ruthless with Naseeba – Mustafa and Tehmina’s daughter.
“On a number of occasions, Mustafa stifled Naseeba’s yells with his hand or
with a cloth” (Durrani, 1995:113). On another occasion, Mustafa exceeded
all his limits and mercilessly inflicted extreme violence on his baby girl for
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wailing. He pushed Naseeba’s head into the water-filled bathtub and held her
there for a few seconds until he was satisfied of punishing her. He was so
merciless that when Tehmina continuously begged for her daughter’s life, he
became even more violent. The poor little girl was all shocked and suffocated
when finally her mother took her out of the water. Mustafa proved to be
tyrannical on girl children because he wanted complete obedience from them
as well. The earlier they learn, the better for them, because then these girl
children would grow up to be the perfect inferior beings, just as the way the
patriarchal society wants them to be. In case, the girl children disobeyed his
orders, it became a punishable act for them. Hence, for their “betterment”,
the lesson was taught to them with extreme brutality, but it is a punishable
offense according to the law that the abusive men tend to over power.

i) MARITAL ISSUES AND PATRIARCHY

Women’s plights become double or even triple when they get married.
This is not to say that all marriages end up as a complete failure. However,
we get the examples and knowledge of the torture done on wives by their
husbands in few cases. As Huma Iqbal writes on her blog: “Seen in the larger
context, violence against women is not the result of random, individual acts
of misconduct, but rather is deeply rooted in structural relationships of
inequality between women and men in our society. The deeply rooted
patriarchal values and norms and the prevailing social attitude that violence
against women is a private domestic issue is a huge impediment in curtailing
the ugly practice” (Iqbal, 2010).
In the autobiographical novel, My Feudal Lord, Tehmina Durrani, in
spite of the fact that she belongs to an affluent family with political
background and the proper education that she has, she faced brutal torture
from her husband, Ghulam Mustafa Khar, a politician during Zulfikar Ali
Bhutto’s regime in Pakistan. Since her childhood, Tehmina was taught to
stay away from boys and men. “And yet, clearly a man was the only future
available to a Pakistani girl” (Durrani, 1995:28). She writes, “Despite the fact
that our mother had divorced her first husband, we were taught that marriage
was a sacred and irrevocable institution. If a husband turned out to be a brute,
it was the wife’s duty to persevere until she changed his character. A broken
marriage was a reflection of a woman’s failure” (Durrani, 1995:29).
Tehmina’s first marriage to Anees at the age of seventeen was the
consequence of this social norm. Initially, it was her urge to get out of the
restrictive environment at her home. As mentioned earlier, during her
childhood, her “Personality failed to develop. My mind became a sanctuary
for secret thoughts of escaping from this household. But for that, there was
no other goal but marriage” (Durrani, 1995:30). Hence, she accepted the
twenty-seven years old Anees’ proposal in the hope of getting a little

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freedom. When at first her mother had turned down the proposal because
Anees was not well off, her best friend insisted her into accepting the
proposal saying, “Samina, she’s not your best-looking daughter. It won’t be
so easy for her to find a boy who’ll love her as Anees does. I suggest you
agree to the proposal. You still have three daughters for whom your position
will be stronger” (Durrani, 1995:34). However, later on Tehmina had
changed her mind. When she informed her family and Anees that she was not
interested to get married to him anymore, she in turn was pacified by saying
that it was just her nervousness regarding this big event (Durrani, 1995:37).

ii) POLITICAL AND FEUDLISTIC OPPRESSION

There is no doubt that patriarchy and fake religious beliefs are the main
reasons for Muslim women’s plight, but there is also one section of this
patriarchal system where the dominance of women reaches its extreme form.
Tehmina Durrani blames the feudal system that causes the extreme form of
torture on women. According to Tehmina, feudal lords think it is their right
to subjugate females, whether it is their wives, sisters, housemaids or even
girl children. By its very own crafted law, feudalism gives men the power
and authority to be brutal on the so called weaker sex. In relation to this,
Tehmina states: Feudalism was a license to plunder, rape and even murder.
In the areas that were later to become Pakistan, some feudal families utilized
Islam as a weapon of control. The patriarchs were venerated as holy men,
who spoke with Allah. And, indeed, at some earlier time many were pious
and righteous. But gradually power passed to elder sons who were neither
pious nor particularly moral, yet were revered by the illiterate people of the
area and perceived as ‘envoys of Allah’. They had the authority to justify
their every deed on the basis of their own, quite convenient, interpretation of
the Koran. A feudal lord was an absolute ruler who could justify any action
(Durrani, 1995:40-41).
Thus, it turns out that women are greatly subjugated in feudal system
as well and they accept their subordinated position to some extent because
the male chauvinistic society, especially the feudal lords, have the ability to
justify their every action. Husbands think that it is their right to dominate and
abuse their wives and any attempt on the women’s side to avoid such
oppression and violence is a pure sign of rebellion. Hence, according to the
men’s law, such women should be punished.
Tehmina Durrani’s devastating condition in the second marriage with
Ghulam Mustafa Khar is the result of feudalism. Although Mustafa claimed
that he is against feudalism, it is his learned characteristics of a feudal lord
that lead to the devastating relationship with his sixth wife, Tehmina Durrani.
He also oppressed and abused his previous wives, Wazir, Firdaus, Safia,
Naubahar and Shahrazad (Sherry) and had several extra marital affairs. He

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was able to do so because his impromptu actions and decisions were justified
by feudalism. Moreover, no other wife of his had ever before dared to go
against his will and injustices. Despite knowing the fact that Tehmina is
married to Anees, he tried his best to impress her with his charm and
strategy. He was inclined towards her only because of her prettiness, long
hair and the fashionable dresses that she wore. Only her outer appearance
excited him, but she was unable to comprehend that for a long time. Tehmina
also fell in love with him, because as mentioned earlier, she had become
bored of Anees. After several obstacles and her family’s disagreement, she
was finally able to get married to Mustafa. When she married Mustafa, he
was already married to his fifth wife, Sherry, and it was from Sherry that she
first came to know the bitter truth about Mustafa. Sherry revealed to Tehmina
that “When he had discovered Safia’s infidelity, he had, apparently, beaten
her without mercy and broken several of her ribs. But, even worse, he had
ordered one of the maids to insert red chili powder into the vagina of poor
Dai Ayesha, the nanny, for not informing him of the affair” (Durrani,
1995:94).
According to Sherry, “Women were his obvious victims. He was out to
destroy us (Durrani, 1995:95). However, at that moment Tehmina could not
completely believe what Sherry said. Tehmina faced Musatafa’s wrath for
the first time when she had a dental appointment and she was asked by her
husband to register herself at the doctor’s as “Begum Mustafa Khar”. As she
did not want to humiliate Sherry, she did not register herself as Mustafa’s
wife (Durrani, 1995:95). To Tehmina’s dismay, Sherry reported this to
Mustafa and he got infuriated. He scolded Tehmina by saying, “Never – ever
– disobey me! You have to do what I tell you to do”? (Durrani, 1995:95).
This incident portrays that Mustafa suffered from both superiority complex
and inferiority complex. As he considered himself a superior and a powerful
feudal lord, if anyone disobeyed his orders, he could not tolerate that,
because according to his mentality, going against his will is a way of
considering him as an inferior being. His wrath continued to shower upon
Tehmina even for trivial matters. “A feudal lord understands… the power of
physical violence” (Durrani, 1995:134). Hence, Tehmina acted according to
his commands. Mustafa was such a merciless person that he used to beat up
his housemaids as well. For instance, once Mustafa had ordered their Dai
(servant) to bring milk for Tehmina. As she had forgotten to do so, “Mustafa
thrust his foot squarely against Dai’s backside, sending her flying through the
doorway” (Durrani, 1995:100). Gradually, Tehmina realized that “she had
fallen into the trap of a typical Pakistani marriage” (Durrani, 1995:100).
Tehmina writes, “I had fallen into the classic trap of the Pakistani woman.
The goal is marriage and, once achieved, the future is a life of total
subordination. I had no power, no rights, no will of my own” (Durrani,
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1995:100). From that point onwards, Tehmina faced continuous verbal and
physical abuse from her husband for various reasons. Even during her
pregnancy with her first child with Mustafa, he exerted extreme torture on
her. As she was unwilling to talk about every detail of her wedding night
with Anees, Mustafa, “Sitting astride my belly, he slapped me in the face
repeatedly with his open palm, forehand and backhand. I fought to stifle my
screams as he pulled at my hair, thrusting my head from side to side”
(Durrani, 1995:102).

iii) CORRELATION BETWEEN STRUGGLE AND AGENCY

There is a correlation between struggle and agency. When people are
in struggle, they want to get the agency. Through their struggle, they try to
find specific ways or various means of dealing with problems. Hence, it is
necessary that we analyze the types of agency that the female protagonist,
Tehmina had adopted and the extent to which they had the capability to make
their choices and to actions in order to get their ultimate freedom. Agency in
a literary context means: “The freedom and capacity to live or act in a
defined world. In a literary sense, we can interpret this in a few different
ways. We could look at a specific character in a novel, and see his/her ability
to make choices, act freely, and control their respective lives within the
novel. The character is able to engage socially, take action on desired things,
and have control over their own life” (Yamaguchityler, 2014).
According to Kelsy C. Burke, to understand agency: “The resistance
agency focuses on women who attempt to challenge or challenge some
aspect of their religion. The empowerment agency approach focuses on how
women interpret religious doctrine or practices in ways that make them feel
empowered in their everyday life. The instrumental approach focuses on the
non-religious positive outcomes of religious practice, and a compliant
approach focuses on the multiple and diverse ways in which women confirm
to gender traditional religious teaching” (Burke, 2012).
Agency is not about how to utilize freedom; rather it is the ability or
“the power to make choices”, to take decisions and “the ability to act”
(quoted by Wrede, 2014). Tehmina’s first rebel against Mustafa was when on
one occasion he was kicking her down a staircase (Durrani, 1995:134). This
time Tehmina did not remain silent. She revolted by saying, “This is my
father’s house and I do not think that you should dare to lift your hand on me
here!” (Durrani, 1995:134). However, this brought only a moment’s “stunned
silence” and he resumed thrashing her (Durrani, 1995:134). Tehmina
gradually built up her confidence to face Mustafa when she had confided the
truth about her turmoil to Bhuttto’s wife, Husna, who in turn had advised her
to divorce him. Next time when she was in the hospital to deliver her second
daughter, Nisha, she mustered her courage to vent her anger on Mustafa in

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the hospital thinking he would not dare to hit her in this public place.
However, she was mistaken because after she was done with venting her
anger, he slapped her hard on the face and twisted her forearm (Durrani,
1995:156). In spite of all this, she suppressed her scream. When she spoke
her heart out about this matter to her obstetrician, she advised her softly,
“Nobody can help you unless you help yourself” (Durrani, 1995:156). This
piece of advice later on made her realize that she did a big mistake by not
shouting to get the doctors’ and the nurses’ attention; she had simply let him
beat her because she let herself to be the weaker one. However, according to
her, she did not scream because she thought that the doctors would call the
police but the police would only “admonish” him and eventually she would
be alone with Mustafa all over again who would torture her even more
(Durrani, 1995:156). She thought that by not screaming she was protecting
herself and not Mustafa, but she was actually mistaken. This idea was
nothing but an extension of her misconception and fear. In this instance,
Tehmina had the chance to take a decision on her favour and to act
accordingly. She could have made a choice of reveling her husband’s real
character to the public, but she did not do so. Consequently, she missed the
excellent opportunity and failed to gain her agency at that crucial moment.

FINDINGS
Tehmina found her separate identity and recognition as an individual
human being by divorcing Mustafa. For example, after freeing herself from
the oppressor, she started socializing, or in other words, she was learning to
be social. She enjoyed the social gatherings and parties as a silent spectator
and got inspired by other independent women. She missed all this in her life
when she was married to Mustafa. She also removed herself from politics
and started painting as a means of portraying her experiences of the world.
Her paintings now portrayed the explicit images of the rapes on women
executed in the goals. Moreover, when they were married, although Mustafa
abused her in the name of fake religious beliefs, Tehmina on the contrary, got
hold of the true religious beliefs and used it as a shield against her husband’s
wrath. She remained faithful towards her religion and profusely prayed to the
Creator during her crisis and used her prayers as her power and strength to
face the tormentor. In other words, instead of opting for the other two
approaches of agency (mentioned at the beginning of this chapter), she was
more inclined towards the resistance approach and the compliant approach
where she rejected the fake religious beliefs by embracing the true religious
beliefs and sought multiple possibilities in order to get her autonomy.
The most important example of her autonomy could be that she broke
the traditional silence of Muslim women in general by writing her first
autobiography, My Feudal Lord (Durrani, 1995:375). According to her,

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exposing hypocrisy is the best answer to the injustice done (Durrani,

1995:375). Hence, women should not remain silent; they should raise their
voice against injustice so that Mustafa and other feudal lords do not “thrive
and multiply on silence” (Durrani, 1995:375). This is her social message to
the oppressed women, especially in the Muslim context. Later on, Tehmina
started up working for women’s rights. Tehmina’s another crucial identity is
that she was is no longer Mustafa’s wife. When once Mustafa told her that
she has “no identity” and importance of her own, she is only Tehmina
Durrani and the “ex-wife” of Ghulam Mustafa Khar, Tehmina became
helpless because his words had stung her deep and at that moment, she had
no strong answer for him (Durrani, 1995:374). Yet, she rejected the
suggestion of keeping her surname “Khar” because she “did not want to lean
on a pillar that had fallen upon” her “instead of supporting” her (Durrani,
1995:374). Later on when the newspapers announced the “pending
international publication” of her autobiography My Feudal Lord, with full
courage and confidence she replied to Khar’s previous statement saying,
“Well, Mustafa, now the world will soon know you only as Tehmina
Durrani’s ex-husband” (Durrani, 1995:382). With these very few words, she
had completely freed herself and built her new independent identity as
Tehmina Durrani and the master of her own will. Although Mustafa, being a
man, his identity as the master in the patriarchal society did not yet change,
Tehmina did get the new identity as a master because she was no longer tied
up with her husband’s surname and she no longer had to act upon his
demands. In her autobiography, My Feudal Lord, Pakistani novelist,
Tehmina Durrani has explicitly pointed out all the oppressions she had to
endure since her childhood and the reasons behind being considered as
inferior being by others. As she was of dark complexion, her mother never
used to adore her. Her mother’s tendency of making her do tasks, such as,
organizing her jewelry, dress, etc., made Tehmina nervous because she was
afraid of losing something or the other, which her mother would not tolerate
at all. Moreover, the restrictive environment at home and the obligation of
remaining as an obedient child without having any enjoyment, made her
somewhat schizophrenic.

CONCLUSION
Tehmina Durrani’s autobiography, My Faudal Lord is one such novel
that reveals the bitterest truth of the sufferings of a Pakistani Muslim woman
who had to undergo mental and physical abuses for almost thirteen years of
her married life with her second husband, Ghulam Mustafa Khar. This is not
only Tehmina’s story; rather it is the representation of the majority of the
battered married women. This true story would otherwise have remained
blanketed if Tehmina’s strong will to expose her husband to the world had

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not worked in her. Her marriage to Mustafa had devastated her so much that
the only way to make other women aware of this abusive relationship was
through writing this book. In this way, several other women will get the
courage to raise their voice against injustice and hence, become stronger. In
other words, through her first autobiographical novel, Tehmina Durrani has
paved the path for the battered women to rise up higher from their subjugated
position with exuberance.

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