Autobiography as Testimony: Truth and Fiction in Tehmina Durrani’s Writings

Abstract

Abstract

What does a person knows better than anyone else might know? It is about one’s own life. We know about our life better than anyone else. It might seem an easy process to write about one’s own life as it involves writing what a person already knows, without any research and fabrication. But, however apparently simple this act might seem, it is anything but simple. As the writer pours out his/her innermost thoughts, hidden experiences, secret fantasies, family origin etc., he/ she come under public speculation, leading to various assessment and controversies. Leaving him/her to confront power, regulation and control in which women usually dread to fall. Also the traditional ‘male’ script for women’s life was lopsided. As a result of which, “women have been deprived of the narratives, or the texts, plot, or examples by which they might assume power over -take control of -their own lives” (Heilbrun, 16-17). This paper aims at exploring the autobiographical truth and fictional aspects combined bravely by Tehmina Durrani in her writings to bring forth the unknown realities and unspoken plight of suppressed women in the male hegemonic society.