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  • Page 27 : Bade Pasha gets divorced due to infertility. That Bawajaan, someone from a Muslim family, is supposed to have fought with his entire family and estranged from them to marry her, a woman of Hindu origin, but divorced her when she couldn't give him a child and creepily married someone as young as his foster daughter. Reducing a woman's worth to her fertility. Did he really love her at all? She refers to him as her husband on her deathbed and asks her to "forgive him".
  • Page 27 : Khalajaan always wipes a tear
  • Bade Pasha's side of the story is never known
  • Bade Pasha's descriptions always have masculine undertones
    • Page 20 : "Bade Pasha was not a conventional Muslim wife."
    • Page 21 : "she was tall; so tall that her saree ended well above her masculine ankles. She wore it awkwardly in any case."
    • Page 23 : "she had a loud, almost masculine voice."
  • Note how Meher takes over the household after she gives birth
  • Page 20 : how they "accuse" Bade Pasha of seducing Bawajaan and being a nautch girl
  • Page 23 : Girls needed "permission" to have and visit friends
  • Page 28 : How having borne a son increases her power
  • Page 31 : Men who appoint themselves God
  • Page 32 : Virginity of a woman so important that she literally has to bear an ornament on her face
  • Page 33 : "Stand-in for her mistress on days she was unavailable". Is the role of a wife to dance to the sexual whims and wishes of her husband? Objectification of women. Interesting how Champa is described "frisky and ugly". What is worse is the how casually this is mentioned - "it was the usual arrangement"
  • Page 47 : woman's self-care as a sign of wishing for other men, page 48 "only nautch girls dress up". Suppression of individuality and self expression.
  • Page 51 : Khaalajan died a virgin to protect the honor of her step-father and husband. How she felt that her life was wasted because of her marriage to an infertile man. Social commentary?
  • "The winter moonlight is like a widow's youth"
  • Pages 54-56
  • Page 83 : "To be uprooted from one's own space and transplanted in alien land and then be subjected to humiliations with not the smallest thought to the great damage and violence that the spirit would experience can leave the most tender-hearted bitter and vengeful"
  • Page 85-86 : how overworked women did everything, yet ironically, the men are the ones with the power
  • Page 95 : who was really in power? Meher continued to run the household as usual when her husband died
  • Page 96 : interesting how a household run by women had no place for limits for being women, mention of marriage, children or in-laws. Commentary on individuality and how it is suppressed in "normal" households?
  • Page 118 : "Was it because she was a girl or because she was not as good looking as the other women around her?"
  • Page 144 : Bawajaan emotional abuse towards mummy since she refused to marry the prick
  • Page 202 : Religion as a tool to oppress women
  • Both literally and subliminally
  • Purdah
  • Money donated to woman in marriage as a token of purchaising her. Contrast this against dowry. Ironic how both are oppressive.
  • 100 coins Bawajaan paid to "buy" Khalajaan
  • Mahr and rules how much to be paid based on intercourse
  • How men are comfortable with Khalajaan making such a choice, audacity of a woman to speak out against her impotent husband
  • Patriarchy operations
    • Amma should not speak bad about Khalajaan
    • Nobody should speak bad about Bawajaan for ruining Khalajaan's life
  • Woman relationships
    • Amma looking at dying Khalajaan - forgivness for being mean to her or sense of camaraderie
  • Twist patriarchal customs into tools of power
    • Bade Pasha's purdah as punishment to Bawajaan
    • Nanima's conditions to ensure autonomy 65
    • Nanima's strength and resilience

Nazia questions

  • Is it appropriate to include a small note on how I personally feel about the novel?
  • Is Mahr objectification of women?
  • Bade Pasha masculine undertones -- am I reading too much into it?
  • Mustafa Khan preying on elderly women
  • Blaming woman in patriarchal society, being Hindu not as big as the reminders, commentary on class and being nautch girl
  • Have to use secondary readings?