Heart Lamp: Selected Stories

By exploring the link between patriarchy and capitalism, Mushtaq highlights how forms of domination and hierarchy often mirror one another or become interdependent. How do the stories expose different forms of power dynamics and exploitation?

Discuss the way Mushtaq uses humor to support her ideas. How do the ironic or farcical situations of her characters illuminate some of the text’s key themes and ideas?

While many of the women in the collection are explicitly oppressed by their husbands and social structures, Mushtaq also reveals how women’s own choices and behavior can perpetuate cycles of oppression and abuse. How do the stories explore issues such as internalized misogyny?

Discuss the differences between the stories where Mushtaq employs a first-person narrator and the ones where she relies on the third person to tell the story. How does perspective support the stories’ ability to build or sustain tension?

In the title story, Mehrun wonders what to live for when the lamp in her heart has gone out. In “Soft Whispers,” Safiya’s grandmother teaches that the heart must be pure. How do these two ideas work together to drive Mushtaq’s larger ideas about purpose and motivation?

In “Black Cobras,” the mutawalli lives in quiet fear of the women in his congregation. What does this reveal about the secret power that communities have over their authority figures? How does this resonate with other moments of resistance or upheaval in the collection?

In “Red Lungi,” Razia concludes that “if there are people to help the rich, the poor have God” (96). How does the rest of the collection prove or disprove this insight? In what ways do the book’s most tragic figures have God in their lives, or feel abandoned by him?

In “Stone Slabs for Shaista Mahal,” Shaista’s death reveals important aspects about her life. How does the motif of death function throughout the collection as a whole? What is its wider significance?