Heart Lamp: Selected Stories

In Mushtaq’s stories, the family is the preeminent site for gendered violence in Indian society. Rarely do these stories ever move away from the family, and even when they focus on working characters, such as the lawyer narrator in “The Arabic Teacher and Gobi Manchuri,” they are still preoccupied with their familial relations. In exploring the problem of gendered violence in the family, Mushtaq critiques the patriarchal power dynamics at play in marital and familial relations. 

The opening story of the collection, “Stone Slabs for Shaista Mahal,” lays out the traditional view of spousal relations: “No matter which religion one belongs to, it is accepted that the wife is the husband’s most obedient servant, his bonded labourer” (7). At the same time, the narrator Zeenat criticizes this tradition, as she is reluctant to maintain a conservative status quo with her husband. Zeenat believes that she is liberated from these repressive structures because she is aware of them. However, the story gradually reveals how she has become complicit in reinforcing those structures by resigning herself to the comforts of domesticity. Shaista awakens Zeenat to the flaw of her aspiration, showing how much her own presence is merely functional and subservient to the whims of her husband, Iftikhar. Iftikhar claims to love Shaista more than anything in the world, yet his declarations ring hollow against his desire to suppress their daughter’s education and how speedily he remarries after compromising Shaista’s recovery from a difficult birth. The story thus suggests that, even in marriages that appear devoted and happy on the surface, unequal power dynamics deprive women of any true status as individual people.  

Other stories underscore the idea that women experience violence in the family to varying degrees of intensity. In the title story, “Heart Lamp,” Mehrun’s husband, Inayat, is indifferent to her feelings as he recklessly engages in his affair, leaving her to feel trapped and experiencing suicidal ideation. Similarly, the narrator in “Be a Woman Once, Oh Lord!” faces unspeakable cruelty from her husband, who abandons her and her children for another woman once she develops a tumor. Yakub in “Black Cobras” also abandons Aashraf, simply because he is disappointed that she has given birth to three daughters in a row. His outspoken refusal of his parental duties directly results in the death of one of those children. This is mirrored to a lesser degree by the husband in “The Arabic Teacher and Gobi Manchuri,” who refuses to take any responsibility for his daughters’ upbringing on religious grounds. 

Mushtaq also captures the way that some women internalize misogyny and use it to disadvantage other women for fear of losing their status in the household. In “A Decision of the Heart,” Akhila antagonizes her mother-in-law because she is jealous of the attention Mehaboob Bi gets from Yusuf. Even though Mehaboob Bi’s actions are completely innocuous, Akhila willfully misinterprets her relationship with Yusuf to the point of calling Mehaboob Bi her “co-wife.” Although Akhila recognizes the error of her ways, the story ends with Yusuf turning against her, perpetuating the cycle of gendered violence that grips their household.

Mushtaq thus exposes violence in various forms, from emotional abuse to physical violence and abandonment, suggesting that oppression can take many forms within the family unit. In closely examining the lives of women from various social classes and backgrounds, she suggests that the problem of patriarchal oppression and gendered violence permeates every level of society.