Shame

The narrator returns to Sufiya as the “Beast” inside her continues to grow. Omar feels obligated to heal her somehow. A clause in Raza’s agreement for Omar to marry his daughter is that Sufiya must live in her parents’ house. A protective servant named Shahbanou refuses to allow Omar into Sufiya’s bed chamber, so the marriage is never consummated. Instead, Shahbanou offers herself to satisfy Omar’s sexual needs. Each night, she has sex with Omar. Sufiya overhears them, and although she does not understand sex, she vaguely understands that she is Omar’s wife. Meanwhile, Raza struggles to rebuild the morale of the army in the wake of the civil war. Noticing the men’s investment in sports, he decides to wrestle hundreds of soldiers and lose the matches intentionally. He gradually revitalizes their morale but suffers many injuries in the process. All the while, his advisors suggest that a coup against Iskander is the only way to restore the public’s faith in the military. During this time, Raza’s spiritual advisor, Maulana Dawood experiences dementia. He dies, cursing the blasphemous development in the new capital city of Islamabad. Raza sees this as a harbinger of things to come.

Good News gives birth to a daughter. A year later, she gives birth to twins. A year after that, she gives birth to triplets, all the while her physical health is impacted due to so many pregnancies in quick succession. Upset by her daughter’s physical health, Bilquis withdraws from society and loses faith in the world. Following his marriage to Sufiya, Omar is finally able to put a stop to his “old debaucheries” (211), as Shahbanou is enough to satisfy him. Despite her mental state, Sufiya learns about the affair, and the realization that she cannot satisfy her husband’s sexual needs causes her to lose sleep. She develops a case of insomnia. A short time later, the “Beast” within her awakes, and she attacks a group of young men, using her “Beast eyes” to hypnotize the men and have sex with them, before ripping their heads from their bodies. On the night of the murder, Talvar may have glimpsed Sufiya in the area where the murders took place. He tells Raza that he saw Sufiya sleepwalking. Raza is shocked. When he finds a bloodstained burqa in Sufiya’s room, he knows that his daughter murdered the young men. He burns the burqa in secret. 

The narrator describes the coup that results in Iskander’s political downfall. Iskander is arrested at the capital when Raza seizes power, backed by the Army. Raza announces the news on national television while “kneeling on a prayer mat” (223). Though Raza does not initially plan to execute Iskander, the anger of Iskander convinces him that the man is “a menace to the country” (225). Iskander is accused of arranging for Little Mir to be killed. Afterward, Raza has Arjumand arrested and sends her to live in secret in Mohenjo with Rani. Though Haroun initially manages to escape, both Haroun and Iskander are accused of murdering Mir. Good News takes her own life a short time later, when she becomes pregnant yet again and simply cannot live with the prospect of another pregnancy and birth. Iskander is placed in solitary confinement in a cramped, filthy cell. In the meantime, Raza becomes the President of Pakistan.

Sufiya seems unable to contain the “Beast” any longer. Omar is afraid that she is becoming increasingly agitated. After her murder of the four men, he gives up on the idea of treating her and instead keeps her sedated and locked in her room. However, Sufiya manages to escape from her locked bedroom. She roams through the streets as Iskander is convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Iskander goads a soldier into shooting him before his official execution, so only his dead body is hanged, and the incident is covered up. 

The narrator compares the events of the coup to the French Revolution. He suggests that history always has two sides: virtue and vice, which represent “the true dialectic of history” (240). Returning to the story, he describes Omar’s fear of Sufiya, who has now escaped and is fully consumed by the irrational “Beast” within her. Meanwhile, Raza remains the most politically powerful man in Pakistan. He continues to hold power as Omar grows old, eventually retiring. Omar sends money to his mothers and puts on weight while waiting to hear news of Sufiya. Feeling the “impotence of power” (244), Raza meanwhile turns the country into a harsh theocracy, instituting violent religious laws and crushing any criticism against his new policies. He hears voices in his head, particularly the voice of Iskander, who reads him advice from the writings of Niccolò Machiavelli; he also hears the religious sermons of Maulana Dawood, as though the two voices are competing points of view. “Maulana” suggests that Raza implement a series of strict religious laws, so Raza follows his advice, banning alcohol and introducing modesty codes that require women to dress in a certain fashion. Raza announces that “God [is] in charge” (248), and appears on television regularly. Bilquis appears alongside him, though she says very little. Raza installs generals and high-ranking members of the Army in every public institution and guards carefully against any potential coups. The narrator notes, however, that such theocracies are not sustainable. From the countryside, rumors reach Raza and Omar about a “white panther” (252) that is murdering people. They suspect that this is Sufiya but allow people to believe in the rumor about the mysterious beast.

Raza serves as prime minister for four years. During this time, Sufiya is said to kill a number of people and animals in a brutal fashion. These attacks become more frequent, and with each passing attack, she moves closer to the capital. Raza is told that the Soviet Union has invaded the neighboring country of A. (meaning Afghanistan). Raza hopes that this will shore up his power thanks to American support. Haroun, having escaped Pakistan, is now located in A. He has been tasked by the Soviets with organizing a terrorist group to undermine Raza’s regime. As Sufiya’s killings intensify, Raza blames them on Haroun’s terrorists. Maulana’s voice stops “speaking” to Raza, leaving him alone with the Machiavellian voice of Iskander. Haroun’s men hijack a civilian aircraft, but he is outwitted and caught by Raza, who is annoyed that he will no longer have anyone to blame for the white panther murders. Raza feels his power slipping away as the newspapers become bolder, no longer afraid of hinting at the many scandals of his past. A furious mob forms outside Raza’s home, and Omar suggests that they return to Nishapur to hide. They slip past the mob disguised by shrouds made by Bilquis, which they wear as burqas. Sufiya seems satisfied to have driven them into hiding, and she stops killing.