Women Victims Of The Code: A Study of Bapsi Sidhwa’s The Pakistani Bride

Abstract

Women belonging to different times and cultural spaces are destined to live within a patriarchal framework of values. The power that patriarchy confers on women transcends time, geographical space and cultural bodies. From time immemorial, women in Pakistan have been battling exploitative treatment at the hands of their male counterparts making it difficult for them to progress and fight for rights. Pakistan born Bapsi Sidhwa, who later moved to US, is considered as pioneer of Pakistani writing in English. The Pakistani Bride is Sidhwa’s most outspokenly feminist work. In this novel, Sidhwa presents the plight of a Pakistani woman, Zaitoon which brings into focus the violence, degradation and oppression faced by women in Pakistani society.