Shame

Bilquis talks to a woman named Rani Humayun, who is engaged to marry Iskander Harappa. They live together in a large home in Karachi alongside many women, under the careful eye of a matriarch named Bariamma. Each night, the husbands of the women enter the room and have sex with their wives. The women live in this traditional arrangement due to the partition and the ongoing violence. Bilquis feels under pressure to give her husband a son, but their living arrangements make things difficult. She listens to Bariamma recount the family’s various tragedies, not yet knowing that the story of herself and her husband will one day be the most scandalous tragedy of all. Because of the violence as both India and Pakistan fight for dominance in Kashmir, Rani is denied the wedding of her dreams. During this time, Bilquis learns that she is pregnant. She shares her news with Raza, who is delighted. Bilquis tells Rani and Iskander that her unborn child will be a boy destined to marry their daughter. Meanwhile, Raza wins fame for a small but significant military victory and is quickly promoted. At the same time, Iskander is an up-and-coming politician who is known to be sexually attractive. He is friends with Omar Khayyam Shakil, and the two men have a reputation for debauchery. People say that Omar seems to be “entirely without shame” (81). During this time, Karachi grows a great deal because the political situation in Pakistan, coupled with a wave of immigration, massively increases the population. Bilquis’s baby is stillborn, and the tragedy drives Raza and Bilquis to quickly try for another child.

In a philosophical interjection, the narrator dismisses traditional notions that people can have roots in a specific geographical location. Continuing an earlier idea, the narrator explores the notion that the version of Pakistan in the story is both real and unreal at the same time and names the novel’s version of Pakistan “Peccavistan,” after the Latin word “Peccavi,” meaning “I have sinned.”

Rani gives birth to a daughter. Feeling unable to conceive while living with Raza’s extended family, Bilquis decides to move out. She and Raza live in military housing, where she conceives and gives birth to a tiny baby girl. Raza is furious that Bilquis gives birth to a girl rather than the boy who might have married Iskander’s daughter in the future. Bilquis names the child Sufiya Zenobia. The narrator reveals that Sufiya will be the story’s heroine. Raza is enraged, demanding that he speak to a supervisor at the hospital. He shouts at the doctor on duty and gives the baby Sufiya a strong poke with his finger. Sufiya seems to blush, suggesting that she is ashamed to have been born the “wrong sex.” The narrator says that Sufiya is born with a sense of shame. 

The narrator tells an old folk story in which a frog croaks in a well and is frightened by the echo. When large gas fields are discovered in the district of Q., Raza is tasked with quashing the local agitators who resist the government’s attempts to extract the gas. Bilquis and Sufiya travel with him, though both Raza and Bilquis ignore their intensifying marital tension. Meanwhile, Rani resents the servants and relations in Iskander’s house. She does not like that her husband is spending so much time with Omar, as both Iskander and Omar have a reputation for drinking and adultery. One day, Iskander’s cousin, Little Mir Harappa, visits Rani. He has his men ransack her home and take many valuable items as revenge. Little Mir explains that Iskander had sex with a French woman whom he was attempting to woo.

Rani and Bilquis often talk on the telephone. Bilquis shares the gossip about Rani’s problems. In Q., Raza meets Maulana Dawood, the same holy man who was accidentally draped in a necklace of shoes on the day when Omar first emerged from Nishapur. Maulana tells Raza which local officials can be trusted and which are corrupt. He encourages Raza to use prayer rather than violence to achieve his goal of protecting the gas fields. During this time, Sufiya catches a dangerous fever that results in an intellectual disability. Expensive medicines are used to return her to good health, but the doctors fear that there may be lasting mental conditions caused by the illness. Bilquis feels ashamed, believing that she is being punished for her infidelity, as she may have cheated on Raza with the owner of a local cinema. Meanwhile, Raza succeeds in his mission to protect the gas fields by employing violent means and ignoring the law. When Raza returns home, the news of his child’s possible mental condition upsets him deeply. He has the owner of the local cinema killed. Though Raza and Iskander are friends, they argue about a woman named Atiyah Aurangzeb (also known as Pinkie). In the future, Pinkie will become Iskander’s mistress. The men cannot resolve their differences and they sever all connections after a very public argument. During this time, Bilquis gives birth to a second child. She names the girl Naveed but nicknames her “Good News.” The birth affects her physically, and she is unable to get pregnant again.