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Silencing of Subaltern in Our Lady of Alice Bhatti International Journal of

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 International Journal of English and Education 268
ISSN: 2278-4012, Volume:5, Issue:2, April 2016

Silencing of Subaltern in Our Lady of Alice Bhatti

Abroo Nazar
M.Phil English Literature
Working as a Lecturer in Government College for Women Jhang, Pakistan

Abstract:
This qualitative research explores the representation of women in Pakistani literature in
English. Pakistani women are represented as victims of religious, cultural, social violence in
these works. This research finds down the stagnant stereotyping strategies used to represent
Pakistani women. This research delimits its focus by selecting Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by
Muhammad Hanif for close textual analysis. Feminist Postcolonial theorist Spivak s theory
provides the theoretical underpinnings for this research.This research concludes that Subaltern
cannot be represented and Pakistani women are depicted as meek, helpless creatures devoid of
any individuality. It has further silenced the women of Pakistan.
Key words: stagnant, stereotype, subaltern, Pakistani women.
Introduction
‘Between patriarchy and imperialism, subject constitution and object formation. The
figure of the woman disappears …there is no place from where a sexed Subaltern can speak’
(Spivak, 1988, p.307).
Colonized were the subaltern of colonial era and Postcolonial societies have created their
own subaltern. Women being disempowered in every society became the subaltern of
Postcolonial societies. Phallocentric tradition has reduced the chances of women representation
in literature. When a group is entitled ‘subaltern’ it cannot be represented. Spivak has altogether
rejected the idea of representation of the subaltern. Spivak has called it the silenced Centre or
Margin.Spivak argues that the representation of our ‘subjects’ are coded or framed in terms of an
us/ them dichotomy in which we develop / civilize / empower ‘them.’ Whenever someone
attempts to represent someone else, he is already caught up in ‘us’/ ‘them’ dichotomy.
Marginalized, oppressed and disempowered are the focus of Spivak‘s attention. Giving
voice to the disempowered of a society is her aim. Her struggle starts from finding an appropriate
word for the oppressed to challenge their representation. GyatriSpivak argues that there is a
‘Crisis in Vocabulary’ whenever the disempowered or oppressed groups appear in the discourse.
She is of the view that the master words like ‘women’, ‘workers’ and ‘the colonized’ are usually
used for the disempowered or oppressed group of the society but she considered them
‘deficient’ for the justifiable representation of the down trodden and marginalized groups of the
society (Spivak, 1995, p. 220). This dissatisfaction led her towards finding new and more
appropriate vocabulary for the representation of the marginalized groups. GyatriSpivak has
selected the term ‘Sublatern’ for the disempowered groups of the society. Subaltern is a more

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fluid and subtle term for encompassing the diverse struggles and lives of the oppressed.
Spivakargues that the disempowered became the marginalia both in the history writing and the
dominant political discourse. In this research, this fluid term ‘Subaltern’ is used for the women
of Pakistan. Pakistani women cannot be defined by simplification or in abstractions. They are a
myriad group of people living in diverse circumstances.
The representation of subaltern is a hideous task and when these are subaltern
women, it becomes impossible. As Spivak (1988) remarks not only colonial representations are
faulty but some native representations are also problematic. Spivak has borrowed the term
“Native Informants” from Demography. She has highlighted the problems and politics of
representation. In all claims of giving voice and representing the subaltern (here Pakistani
women), the Subject is further rendered voiceless. The native informant is found guilty of a
certain kind of epistemic violence which robs them of their individuality thus further silencing
them. Spivak has called the Imperial epistemic violence just an ‘imperfect allegory’ of the extent
of violence that is the possibility of an episteme. These Native informants are unable to represent
the subaltern women because of various reasons.
Firstly, Spivak claims that ‘certain varieties of Indian elite are at best Native informants
for the first world intellectuals interested in giving voice to the Other” (p. 308). These writers are
unable to give voice to the subaltern because they are native informants and they are speaking for
the first world intellectuals. The information about the subaltern Pakistani women is censored for
this purpose. The books written by these Native informants will only be accepted after being
appropriated, marketed, and accepted as ‘counter canonical’ (Ahmad, 1992, p. 20). The entire
counter-canon is formed in the West so only those versions of the subaltern women are
acceptable which come true to the already established dichotomy of White woman/ coloured
woman, empowered/ oppressed, educated/ ignorant. This will further strengthen Western
women‘s superiority over Oriental women. Abdul Jaan Muhammad (1985) has named this
Western desire not a fixation on specific mages or stereotypes of the Other rather on the affective
benefits proffered by the Manichean allegory which generates various stereotypes. These Native
informants or Cultural Sell-outs are working to naturalize Western women‘s superiority over
Pakistani women.
Secondly, these native writers are unable to represent Pakistani women because of their
privileged position. Their comparatively privileged positions prove a hurdle in their way to
understand the Pakistani women. These writers require a slippage from their epistemological
advantaged positions to capture the variety of experiences prevalent in the lives of
epistemologically disadvantaged identities of Pakistani women. These privileges are their loses.
In the word of Landry and Maclean (1996)
Our privileges whatever they may be in terms of class, race, nationality, gender and the
like may have prevented us from gaining a certain kind of Other knowledge; not simply
the information that we have not yet received; but the knowledge we are not equipped to
understand by reasons of our social positions (p.20).

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1Our Lady of Alice Bhattiby Muhammad Hanif

1 Alice Bhatti- A Postcolonial Subaltern
Muhammad Hanif has endeavoured to capture the life of a postcolonial subaltern in his
novel Our Lady of Alice Bhatti (2011).Hanif has himself declared her
marginalization.AliceBhatti is a subaltern of a postcolonial society.She is an Other of Pakistani
society.Hanif has employed caste and ethnic difference as a marker to freeze her in the place of
inferiority. Nayar (2008) describes the postcolonial subalternization in these words, “if the native
was the subaltern in the colonial era, postcolonialism created its own Subaltern, ‘women,’ ‘lower
castes’, and classes, ethnic minority rapidly became the Others within the postcolonial nation
state.” (p.98).Similarly, Jones (2011) argues that ethnic and racial differences are used to
construct difference and freeze groups in the place of inferiority (p.211).Hanif has attempted to
capture the life of a Subltern but as GyatriSpivak argues that Subaltern cannot be represented so
somewhere Hanif has further silenced Alice rather than giving voice to this sexed Subaltern.
Alice appears on the surface not as a three dimensional character but a stagnant stereotype.Alice
is marginalized on the base of her caste, religion and gender.She is a triply marginalized being.
Alice is represented as an altogether oppressed figure, humiliated throughout her life.She is over
obsessed with her body and humiliation. Thispractice is repeatedly criticised inpostcolonial
feminist studies as the discursive construction of the third world women as an oppressed
category (Mohanty, 1984, see also, Nayer, 2008).
Hanif has portrayed his characters in dark shades.Alice is “rendered destitute,
disenfranchised, and economically powerless” (Nayer, 2008, p.104) by Hanif.There is not even a
single crack left open through which a small ray of hope can enter. Although now and then her
plight raises sympathy but it is conforming the pre-existing stereotypeof a powerless Pakistani
woman. Margery Fee (1989) has named such practices as “the oppressive tactics and
stereotyping romanticisation”(p.104) where female characters are romanticised and
mythologized.
Hanif has used the word“Choora” community for the Christians of Karachi slums,this
visual code is used to show the prejudice persistent in the people against the groups of different
religions and castes and Hanif has employed this difference as a tool to create a stereotype. Alice
Bhatti,the centre of gravity in the novel is a Christian nurse freshly returned from Borstal Jail for
Women and Children.She is introduced as a distraught woman. She is over obsessed with her
femininity and deeply frustrated.She is humiliated, maltreated and exploited again and again.The
whole atmosphere is suffocating for her.As Muhammad Hanif writes,
Life has taught Alice Bhatti that every little step forward in life is preceded by a ritual
humiliation.Every little happiness asks for a down payment.Too many humiliations and a
journey that goes in circles mean that her fate is permanently in the red. She accepts that
role(p.55).
Hanif has propagated the stereotype of a typically oppressed woman. She is represented
as a tortured being. Life brings nothing but pain and humiliation to her and she has accepted that
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role. Alice is depicted as the pariahof Pakistani society.She is an “untouchable”of Islamic

Republic of Pakistan.She is not depicted as a human being of free will rather a pathological
condition left on the misery of fate.She knows very well that she is from the untouchables.This
reality has left her alone to accept the role assigned to her.Hanif has drawn her character on the
same lines as Farber (1996) writes about the appropriate conditions for being categorized as a
pariah, “To be a pariah is to be shunned and isolated,to be treated as if one had a loathsome and
contagious disease…Outcasts are not merely inferior; they are not fully human and contact with
them is dangerous and degrading” (p.266).
Alice Bhatti is a part of a minority in Pakistan.Hanif has created a fictional world in
which there is a binary of Self and Other established.In this Postcolonial world, the oppressed are
involved in a struggle of survival between the Haves and Have-Nots. Postcolonial writers are
trying to create a balance between the opposites, a middle way for survival by reconciling the
opposites. The Others are represented and given voice but in Hanif‘s fictive world, he has further
exaggerated the Otherness of Alice Bhatti and as a result he has strengthened the pre-existing
dichotomy.
2. The Pathological Journey of Female Consciousness
“Woman is defined as an aberration, a pathological condition,associated with ‘complaints’ and
‘weeping’ and pains ”(Robins, 2000, p.2).
Our Lady of Alice Bhattishows a pathological journey of female consciousness. There are
only three female characters that are physically present in the novel. All the other
femalesarenameless,faceless.Just a group of females kicked,hacked or shot. There are allusions
to weeping, complaining prostitutes. Reluctant to do whatever is demanded. Another nightmarish
allusion is to Alice Bhatti‘s mother Margret Bhatti.She was raped and murdered by her
master.Her death was portrayed as an accident;Hanifhas introduced her as the ‘Mother of Alice’
rather having a Christian name. She is depicted as a marginalized Other.
Women are depicted as a nameless category, as an ocean of nameless figures. From the
herd of this endangered species(women),only three figures are emerging. One figure is of Alice
Bhatti, this is the only neatly sketched character in the whole novel. Second character is a stern
female, it is left semi-drawn while the last one is more so a shadow. The last character is almost
dead mother of Noor,suffering from three types of cancer. She is introduced as the half dead
Zainab, who is completely dependent upon her thirteen years old son Noor.
There is a downward journey of woman’s realization of herselfworth as depicted by
Muhammad Hanif. These three characters represent the three stages of woman‘s consciousness.
Alice Bhattiis a beautiful but poor girl. She is humiliated at every step of her life.Every small
happinessdemands a down payment from her. She is struggling against the religious, cultural and
patriarchal tyrannies of the society.She is the kind of woman, who attracts the wrong type of
attraction. She is represented as a weak woman. All her life, she has been passingdoctrines of
passive resistance,bowing down her eyes and avoiding male gaze.Hanif has portrayed her

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aweakcharacter.Onewhoissureabout her weaknessandhernothingness.Her nothingness is

strengthened at every moment.
HinaAlvi is standing at the second stage of this earthward journey of female
consciousness. Alvi has adjusted herself into the ‘absence’.She has accepted the norms and
tyrannies as ‘normal’.She has grown herself into the role of a triply marginalized other.Hanif has
declared her uselessness into the interview panelthat her main contribution to the proceedings
was of ‘licking the crimson juice occasionally dripping from the corner of her mouth’ (p.2). Only
as a silent Other, she is acceptable. She is not talking,participating in any activity while all the
male members are negotiating with Alice Bhatti.Senior Sister Hina‘s character symbolizes a
passive woman who has to tame her consciousness. This is the only way,a woman is acceptable
in Hanif‘s world of fiction. She has to accept her status as lower to men. She has to accept men
as the norm, as the ultimate authority.They can shot, kick or hack a woman but one has to behave
as it is normal.Pakistani women do not question their place in Hanif‘s fictive world. Teaching the
same lesson to Alice Bhatti,Alvi says, “But your duty is to convince them to put it back in their
pants.You are not taught to go around hacking them” (p.75).
In Hanif‘s world of fiction,the common sense of Pakistani woman is moving in the
reverse order. It is moving towards extinction, going to be ended soon. The only way to survive
is not to light a candle but to adjust their eyes with the darkness. HinaAliva is a symbol of
thisadjustment with the darkness. She becomes the Queen of a sick Charya world (p.30).
The last stage of a traumatized female consciousness is symbolized by Zanib,the lead
pencil sketch of a female character.She is more so a shadow; acomplete absence. Her lips are
pursed. Using religion,patriarchy and social oppression as tools, Hanifhascompletely
dehumanized her.She is pampered by her thirteen years old son Noor. She is even unable to shoo
the flies off her mouth.Noor sweeps her drippings. He feeds her. She is totally dependent upon
him.
Zanib symbolizes the last stage of female consciousness. Female consciousness is
dead.The fits of unconsciousness which occasionally made Alice see a stagnant lizard on the
wall, have now completely overwhelmed Zainab. She is unconscious,She is not at all aware of
her rights. She has lost her fight against tyrannies and couched herself into a position favoured
by the male members. She is in a state of complete dependency upon male. She is fed by
them,cared by them.Her consciousness is completely dead. She cannot stand up any more. She
represents acompletely subjugated, silenced woman.
3. Sacred Heart Hospital – A Nightmare
The Sacred Heart Hospital –for all ailments is the setting for this novel, the main action
takes place inside it. Hanif has pictured it as a nightmare, a place full of dirt and garbage.The
stinking odour of blood and urine is its distinguished feature,a place full of strange creatures with
dripping roofs, broken beds and insufficient medicine. Everything happens here should be
considered normal. As Hanifwrites,“AliceBhatti has read many stories about women being

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hacked and burnt or simply disappeared in the corridors of the Sacred,and now Sister HinaAlvi
has told her that she should consider everything in this place normal ”(p.35).
In this centre of this entire supernatural, nightmarish normal place is walking, breathing
and working a creature Alice Bhatti, who is no less nightmarish than the Sacred itself. A
distraught being, thinking of lizards and mops of blood even during her interview. She is
depicted as an oppressed person having a sabotaged identity.
Hanif writes about the hospital, “This death hole otherwise known as Sacred Heart Hospital for
All Ailments.Rights for admission reserved…” (P.8). Hanif‘s description of the Sacred Heart
Hospital serves as an extended metaphor for Pakistan.It is the metaphorical description of the
country. In Rushdian stance, Hanif has ironically portrayed the picture of a “Death Hole.” Where
killing, murdering, burning and disappearing of women is considered normal.
Alice is everywhere and nowhere in the hospital.InHanif‘s fictive world,everyone is
obsessed with her presence but no one is ready to give her any place. Arguing about the place
allotted to a woman, Arendt (1974) says that to find a place for a woman in any piece of
literature, one has to begin by searching in the footnotes, in the marginalia, in the less recognized
works of a thinker for those "traces" that are left behind by women's presence and more often
than not by their absence.
4. A Victim of Patriarchy
At the heart of this hospital is situated a sick Charyaward,anuthouse.It is full of mad man,
singing absurd songs, dancing, making nest of human hair, a place which makes one
miserable.There is not a single woman in this nuthouse.AliceBhatti is sent there for their
medication.SickCharya ward symbolizes the elite class of society.The class which is making
laws and is involved in corruption.Hanif has attempted to show the madness,lack of logic and
cruelty presiding in this class. Woman is a plaything for them.Hanif‘s writing is too much
focused on male evil and female helplessness, it is further strengthening the dichotomous
division. He writes,
As she nears the Charya ward, she realises that the usual smells –disinfectants,spirits,
dried blood,stale food –have started to disappear.She can see potted plants, pots chipped
and plants dead,and moss growing in the cracks on the walls. An arrow painted on the
wall points towards the ward, with the words The Centre for Mental and Psychological
Diseases written in English and Urdu (p.32).
In Hanif‘s world of fiction, every idea,every action performed by any department in
Pakistan reaches through the dark siege.He has not discussed law, politics,judiciary or any other
institute both with its good and bad aspects.Rather every institute is presented as a store house of
evils.
The chipped pots show the pump and show of this class.The apparent sophistication but
hollowness of their values as the plants are dead. Their reason and humanity is dead. Hanif has
criticised all the departments the law, courts, police, politics, the government,

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religion,humanrights organization and media.There is no place given to woman in the law. All
of these departments are depicted as being run illogically by the mad men. HinaAlvi refers that
they might have killed their own sister or daughter but one has to tell them that its
normal.“Dardaur ,dawaaur ,dardaur,dawaaur,’’Hanif has shown the absurdity and abstract
nature of law made by male members.Apparently this song has no significance in the structure of
the novel but through its abstract language,it serves to produce the reality effect in the novel, the
rules which are made by men and for men.She is a victim left on the mercy of male members
Adrienne Rich(2003 ) remarks about such writings as these are “ so focused on male evil and
female victimization that is ,too allows for no difference among men ,places ,times …’’(p.35).
5. Alice – The Powerless Figure
Alice is depictedas weak, passive Pakistani women.She is shown as a pawn in the game
of male chess. Alice is shown as woman who is facing the overwhelming lust of a wolfish
society.She does not have any power to answer back.She cannot resist. Lusty males are there to
eat her up, destroy her body.
Hanifhas entrapped Alice into the same old frame work of a powerless Pakistani
woman.She has managed herself in her powerlessness. As he writes, “She has a whole doctrine
perfected over years to deal with all of that’’ (p.9).She knows that she cannot answer them back
or resist their assaults. So she does not want to be noticed because of her powerlessness
position.Hanif writes, “when she walks she walks with slightly hurried steps,as if she has an
important but innocent appointment to keep. She avoids eye contact,she looks slightly over
people ‘s heads as if looking out for somebody ….”(P. 98). Against this powerless picture of an
Asian woman,Hazel V. Carby(1982) argues that many Asian girls have strongly protested
against being stereotyped as weak, passive,quiet girls who do not dare life a finger in their own
defence (p.67). Similarly, Parmar and Mirza (1981) have also objected against this stereotypical
portrayal of women.They consider it a degradation of Asian women to portray them as girls
“who do not want to stand out or cause trouble but to tip –toe about hoping nobody will notice
them’’ (Parmar&Mirza, 1981, p.30).

6. Body – A locus of exploitation

If female bodes are the locus of exploitation, they are also the sites of resistance.Hanif
has stereotyped Alice Bhatti through the exploitation of body.Throughout her life, she is
physically exploited by men. He has followed the century’sold tradition of stereotyping women
as helpless beings.Alice‘s body is the locus of exploitation in the novel. Throughout the course
of the novel, she is defined by her body. Female body and sexuality is controlled and oppressed
by the male members of the society. Alice‘s body is subjected to scrutiny. All man came in her
life as exploiters. Hanif has used the adjective “Competing warriors “for them. She is the
miserable creature, who has to be exploited. As Hanif writes, ‘‘Her twenty seven -years –old
body is a compact war zone where competing warriors have trampled and left their
marks”(p.174). Hanif has used war imagery for describing the destruction of Alice‘s body. All
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the men who became a part of her personal life have left scars over her body. Her identity is
sabotaged in this process. The communist doctor who was her adolescent lover had left the
marks of his love over her left breast. The cigarette ash, he had dropped over her during the short
period of sweating intercourse became a reminder for her throughout her life.
Hanif has thrown Alice is thrown into a turmoil with her body. Obsession with body has
made her psychologically crippled Woman‘s sexuality and personality is recognized only
through her body. She cannot walk outside in a street without being conscious of her body. Hanif
has portrayed that. Alice is portrayed as obsessed with her body. This obsession has hampered
her mental growth. Her whole being is defined by a pair of breasts and a vagina. Alice is shown
combating all the lust strives throughout her life.
7. Dehumanization
A strange croak comes out of her mouth, a voice that surprises her,the voice of a baby
frog complaining about being too small for this world. She notices, for the first time in her life,
that the lizard has four feet.” (p. 7)
Mohanty (1984) has named it as the “infantilization of women”,a stereotyping strategy
employed by the writers. Hanif has also stereotyped Alice Bhatti by following the same politics
of representation.Alice is not portrayed as a normal humanbeing rather she is shown as a
fearful,infantilisedfigure.Alice‘s nothingness is signified by her comparison to a baby frog. Like
a baby frog,her existence is meaningless in this world.Such a comparison carries the connotation
ofnothingness,meaninglessness and helplessness. In this vast world, she stands nowhere. Her
existence has no importance.By such a comparison,Hanif has dehumanized his protagonist Alice
Bhatti. Alice‘s dehumanization is done on two levels,her comparison to a baby frog deprives her
completelyof her sense of identity.As a person of free will and choice,who is able to take
decisions according to her choice. She herself is surprised at her helplessness. It is Alice‘s
“misplaced anger “inFanonianterms, which led her to see lizard on the wall. Misplaced anger of
a person with compromised identity gives birth to an inferiority complex in the individual.
Alice‘s misplaced anger involves her in day dreaming, theone that cannot express her hatred. The
purposeless filthy lizard stagnant on the wall is a result of her inferiority complex. As Hanif
writes “She looks at the lizard again. It has moved but it is’nt going anywhere. It stays fixed on
the wall like an emblem that has forgotten its purpose” (p.10).
Lizard symbolises Alice‘s stagnant, meaningless existence. The filth, the nauseating
feeling attached with its sight foreshadows that there will not be any change, any improvement in
Alice Bhatti‘s life. She is born to suffer till her last breath. “It has moved but it is not going
anywhere, it stays stuck to the wall ...” (p.10). This line foreshadows the upcoming disasters in
Alice s life. Neither her job nor does her wedding to a Muslim brought any solace in her life.Her
life is not improved .She cannot attain a respectable status in a society.She remains stuck to her
position .The stagnancy Hanif has attached with Alice‘s existence echoes back the absurdity of
SamualBackettin “Waiting for Godot”(1991), where all their efforts are fruitless. All their life,
they have been living in a ditch and waiting for a miracle save them. Till the last scene, “they do

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not move” (p.98). Similarly, Alice has spent her life in a ditch. All her efforts bore no fruit and
the pathetic, miserable creature becomes more miserable at the end with “nothing to be done”
(p.1). Alice, the centre of gravity has lost her gravitational tug. Her existence is not more than a
zero in Hanif s fictional world.
8. Absence and Presence of Alice Bhatti:
It is not the mere “absences “of the Coloured women which makes them outrageous but
the way they make them “visible”,arguesCarby (1982) in the start of her nominal article,“White
Woman Listen !”. Women of colour,the Black women and Third world Eastern women all are
depicted in literature according to a set pattern of ideas.They are analysed according to the
parallels made between them and the White,educated progressed women of West.
Alice Bhatti is presented as a tortured soul in the novel. Throughout the course of her life,
Alice is deprived of a single ray of hope. Religion, family, work place, marriage all these
institutes have destroyed her life. Hanif‘s lens is more so Oriental in seeing the life and
experience of Alice Bhatti. This stereotyping is further carried through the narration of the
novel.This is the life history of Alice Bhatti.She is present throughout the novel.The writer‘s
endeavour is to capture not merely the geographical landscape of her life but the psychological
insights are woven in the plot of the story as a sub plot. This is Alice Bhatti,who is present on
every page of the novel but unfortunately,there is not even a single instance where Hanif has
used “I” for Alice Bhatti.The whole story is narrated in the third person technique.This
“linguistic remove” cannot be ignored. This is her “presence” which is questionable rather than
her absence in the story. The very title of the novel denotes her absence. In “Our Lady of Alice
Bhatt”, “Our” shows the possession, the desire to possess. Like a piece of land or a property
Alice Bhatti is a property of all male members of this society. As Hanif writes, “A woman was
something you could get as loose change in a deal made on a street corner’’ (p.96). Emphasising
this difference of narration which kills the originality and individuality of a woman,Carby (1982)
argues that there is a difference between history and herstory. While the former refers to the
story of oppression written from the Oriental perspective later refers to the story of pain and
sorrows written from the view point of an oppressed woman of the Third world.
9. Posters, Play Cards as a Meta –text
Banners, play cards, torn wall posters and wall chalking all are employed as literary
devices to stereotype women. Their absurd languageserves as a commentary over the absurd
situation of Pakistani women.LikeBackett, Hanif has created meaning through absurdity.
Hanifsays“The electricity pole is splattered with leaflets and stickers. It reads ‘the coalition for
the Protection of the Mothers of the faithful’ reads the poster with a chader covering a “faceless
woman “(p. 12).
Every word, every image is symbolic. Hanif has employed ‘absurdity ‘as a tool to
stereotype Alice Bhatti.Hanif has depicted that the absurdity and myth circulating around
women. Religion, politics, culture and society all are moving around women like a snake to

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suffocate her. Women are consideredas a symbol of honour and respect.Sheis represented as the
repository of honour both in public and private spheres.
Hanif has further conformed AliceBhatti ‘sotherness in the novel.People have been
fighting,killing each other in the name of “honour of the Mother”. Stereotype of mother is
perpetuated here. She is considered as a store house of honour. Patriarchy has designed a model
to fulfil its demands. The visual code of a “faceless woman” highlights the homogenization of
women in Pakistan. “Faceless woman” denotes her marginality and otherness. She is still a
classless, raceless, featureless entity. Women are treated as a faceless, classlesscategory.They
have no individuality and difference. All are same, undistinguishable junk.The image itself is a
denial of “difference.”
Under the cover of same “chador,” all are collected.It is a complete denial of woman‘s
identity.Women are not identified as individuals of desires, emotions and intellect rather they are
just recognized by the roles they play.
10. Politics of Dependency
Pakistani women are portrayed as meek, passive creatures,largely dependent upon their
male members for support and protection.They are unable to defend themselves and have to rely
upon male counter parts.AliceBhattiis introduced as a strong woman,who is fighting against the
chauvinistic society throughout her life.Bumping a doctor, slashing the penis of a ruffian elite are
the most important examples of her courage and extraordinary valour but somewhere, Hanif has
again stereotyped her through the politics of dependency. The male dominated society,where
every male member is depicted as a killer, exploiter or an oppressor her lingering sense of
insecurity brings her to choose one of these killers.
She is still dependent upon a male member for her security and protection. Somewhere,
deep down her consciousness this fact is embedded that she is weak,helplessandmiserable
without a male member.Whenever she walks in the hospital and outside it, she walks with
hurried steps because “She does not want anyone to think that she is alone and nobody is coming
for her ’’ (p.98). She knows that without a male member on her back she has no value, nobody
will respect her.Everyone will consider her easy bait.
Here, Hanif‘s Amazon Queen becomes a mere passive woman, conforming the pre-
existing stereotype of weakness and dependency.
11. Women:An Endangered Specie
Either woman is passive or she does not exist (Robins, 2000, p.110). Hanif has used the
term ‘Endangered Species’ for Pakistani women. They are killed,hacked and shot every day in
Pakistan. The whole scene is reflected through the eyes of Alice Bhatti. Women are presented as
a passive creatureborn to suffer .They cannot raise a voice for themselves. They are killed in the
name of honour,love and sometimes just as a sport. In Hanif’s fictive world, male members
consider it their birth right to strike every deal centred on women. Centred yet marginalized is
the status of women in Hanif‘s text. At one place, she is a victim of domestic abuse,at another

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place;she is suffocated to death by a jilted lover. Farmers, politicians all strike their deals and use
women bodies as commodities to be exchanged.
Such a depiction on one handhighlights the marginalized status of women in Pakistan but
on the other hand it risks the integrity of womanhood .Women are shown as passive actors,
puppets whose strings are tightened by the male members of the society. Women‘s lives are
shadowed forever. They move from one man to another, being kicked, punched and then
sometimes bounced back. No one speaks for them, law politics,religion, culture and tradition all
are hand in glove with for the deterioration of women
Women are doubly marginalized in the Postcolonial societies, firstly by the colonizers
and secondly, by their male members. Hanif‘s emphasis is upon the marginalized status of
women in Pakistan .There is no place for a happy woman in Hanif ‘s fictive world .All women
are hopeless ,only two are properly named Alice Bhatti and HinaAlvi. Remaining all is described
as nameless creatures, facing the overwhelming oppression of the society.
Such a portrayal reinforces the pre- established stereotype of a passive victim. There is no
space for a woman to educate herself.Reading this book may leads to depression and disruption.
Such a passive, victimized portrait of women threatens the individuality and courage of woman,
her realization to speak for herself and love herself as an individual of free will.Throughout the
novel, there are instances of the objectification and commodification of women.Spivak has
always been vocal against this marginalization of women. This ‘guise of sympathy’ is
threatening their individuality. They should not be depicted as mummies forever silent,
foreverdeaf. Women should be depicted as courageous women, who can raise a voice for
themselves. This is the only chink from where a ray of hope can enter.
12. Women as Slaves
Hanif has compared the names of Alice Bhatti and Teddy Butt. Teddy is always
addressed by his full name, people give him respect and honour although his financial status is
not higher than Alice Bhatti but still he is given respect .While on the other hand, Alice is always
addressed as ‘sister Alice,’ or ‘daughter Alice’.She is known by the role she performs for the
society not as a human being having a proper name.
Alice and all women are stereotyped as slaves, aprepaid,life time servant.Men are shown
as the exploiters, the cruel masters treating their women mercilessly. Men bought women in the
deal of marriage,the prepaid multipurpose servants, who cook food for them, give birth to their
children and also perform as whores to fulfil their sexual hunger.This image of a breeder,cook
and whore are connected with Pakistani women for a long time.
Hanif‘s depiction has further strengthened the dichotomy of male / female, strong / weak.
Women are denied a respectable status in the society. They are treated as slaves; they do not
have freedom to spend their lives independently. This also shows the ignorance of women in
Pakistan. Alice never has the realization that she is person other than the roles assigned to her.
She is mere ‘Sister Alice’ or ‘Daughter Alice’. She is comfortable within the confines of that

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constructed role, never challenges it. This ‘happy being ignorant’ sort of attitude has threatened
the humanity of Alice Bhatti.
13. Home, love – The Lingering Sense of Insecurity
Love is a beautiful dream knotted into a lingering sense of insecurity. It is a ray of hope
for the traumatized soul Alice Bhatti. Alice is exploited throughout the course of her life. She is
considered as the object of male fantasy, a woman who does not have any respect and social
position. Every man is determined to sexually exploit her.Hanif describes that she is the type of
woman, who attracts the ‘wrong type of attraction.’ Marriage proves to be the house of
exploitation, Alice is introduced as a non –typical woman and she went to the jail for kicking a
doctor in the groin. She is the sort of woman, who cannot say ‘sorry and yes please’. She is
weak from inside. She needs support and protection from a male member, one who can save him
from all the other tyrants of his own sex.AsHanifwrites,“The whole business of love is a
protection racket,like paying your local bhatta to your local hoodlum so that you are not mugged
on your own street” (p.82), he is more so a bodyguard who has melodramatically saved her from
a bunch of madmen.
The connection of security and peace is attached to the concept of marriage and home.
But for Alice, it was a survival strategy,a way to hide from the lusty eyes of male members. Her
fear of being lost in the whirlpool of patriarchal lust makes her take this step. it is her desire for a
respectable status, her quest for identity which takes her to Teddy Butt but the irony of situation
mocked her, a futile effort totouch the centre. But fate laughed at her.The effort of a triply
marginalized Subaltern became fruitless .She is further victimized.Her saviour turned into killer.
Teddy Butt made her die a death on which Death itself weeps.He burnt her by throwing a bottle
of acid upon her.Alice‘s death does not create any difference. Alice Bhatti does not bring
anything new in the already established notion of a woman, a woman who is exploited
throughout her life and meets the same miserable death at the end.
14. Alice in Wonderland and Alice Bhatti in Horror land
Alice‘s adventures through the Wonderland are called as the feminist adventures of self -
discovery.Megan S. Lloyd (2010) remarks that Alice is breaking all the stereotypes of a typical
Western female.Her journey is the journey of self- discovery.
Like Alice‘s journey in the Wonderland, AliceBhatti‘s journey in this world is full of
adventures.It can be interpreted as a mockery of feminist self- discovery which ends into her
pitiable death. Every new step brings a new challenge for Alice Bhatti.It is the journey of
feminine slavery and objectification.If Alice is a feminist, learning at every moment, Alice Bhatti
is a down trodden soul, also learning at every moment.AliceBhatti learns to leave her pride, her
identity at every new step. At the end,AliceBhatti is stripped off her identity completely by
Muhammad Hanif.Alice returns in the realworld as a strong female figure breaking all the pre-
established stereotypes of a woman but Hanif‘s Alice Bhatti cannot leave the Horror land as an
alive soul, a passive womanwho questions the tyrannies of the society but unable to defend
herself at the end.
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If madness and novelty are the working principals of Wonderland, absurdity and horror
are the working principals of the Sacred Heart Hospital –The Horror Land. Alice as a
stereotypical passive woman, insecure for support is forced to death.Till the end, she cannot defy
the existing stereotype of victimized woman.Absurdity of religion,culture,tradition and racial
prejudice kills the ‘little bit’ of Alice Bhatti, she was able to retain till the end. Alice Bhatti is
sticking to the ‘cult of true womanhood.’ The stagnant notion of a slave victim of male
violence,whose condition does not change throughout her life is the working principle of Alice
Bhatti‘slife.In Alice Bhatti‘s Horror Land, nothing is explainable,everything is considered
normal here. Alice Bhatti‘s fate in the end of her journey proves her a passive victim.
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