Ask a number of
people whether they believe chick lit (or to use a term considered less
disparaging, women’s literature) is a genre that caters to both genders and
they’ll admit that they believe it’s a field for female readers only. The need
to have an urgent conversation about such implications aside, if the genre is
seen as catering to a readership solely consisting of women, it goes to say that
one should pay attention to the kind of female characters being presented in
such genres.
In Pakistan, chick lit is easy enough to find in dramas and
in literature written in Urdu. In literature written using the English language,
however, there are very few purely romance-driven stories. By and large there is a tendency to
concentrate on terrorism, 9/11, terrorism, religion, terrorism, politics, and did I
mention terrorism? But a few authors
have tried to break away from the mold and produce light-hearted banter,
cheesy dialogues, angst-filled separations and bouts of uncertainty cured by a
happily ever after. Prominent among these are the novels Karachi, You’re Killing Me! by Saba Imtiaz and How It Happened by Shazaf Fatima Haider.
If a genre is seen as catering to a readership solely consisting of women, it goes to say that one should pay attention to the kind of female characters being presented in such genres.
Both these novels are written by women, are predominantly
about women, and feature issues women can relate to. But more
importantly, both these books don’t try to cover this up by coating it in a
veneer of serious, ‘heavy’ talk. The tone is light-hearted, the plots are funny and
fast-paced, and the females are complex. And throughout these two stories, there is
an almost palpable sense of opposition against a system that females don’t
agree with. Imtiaz’s protagonist, a female reporter named Ayesha, expresses her
frustration over how women are judged more harshly for smoking than men; in
Fatima Haider’s story, the protagonist’s older sister Zeba fights for her right
to marry whom she loves. In different ways and about different things, but both
books provide the same impression: that of frustration with a society that
judges, condemns or oppresses females for being females.
The interesting thing about both these books is that they
don’t set out to be ‘Issue’ books. Both Imtiaz and Fatima Haider employ tones
that are in no way didactic or moralizing, but their females are funny, smart
and above all, show a remarkable amount of agency. In Imtiaz’s conclusion to
the romance in Karachi, You’re Killing
Me! it is the heroine who runs after the guy she loves for the dramatic
airport love confession. Fatima Haider takes this a step further in How It Happened by setting up a
matriarchal family, with the younger generation’s ideas of love marriages pitted against her grandmother’s strict adherence to the
sanctity of arranged marriages.
Throughout these two stories, there is an almost palpable sense of opposition against a system that females don’t agree with.
What works right or well or is acceptable in both these stories
is beside the point. One can spend lots of time and ink arguing over what
religion or society allows and doesn’t allow, and what’s damaging or wrong in
both these stories. Because at the end of the day, these stories are one within
a vast sea of perspectives, and their limited nature just goes to show how
important it is that more authors start to dabble in this genre, that more
books that are light and witty and entertaining take on issues that are
actually really, really important to discuss.
There are obvious differences between Fatima Haider and
Imtiaz’s handling of particular issues, but what it comes down to is the fact
that within these books, women make choices and then stand by them. The females
in these books are not only smart or funny or successful, they can also be
petty and vain and selfish and a mixture of all of the above. The plots in
these stories rest on the shoulders of these complex, interesting females, and that’s what makes
them worth reading.