The subjection and exploitation of female figures in Bapsi Sidhwa's The Bride under feminist theory of Mill.

The bride (1983) by Bapsi Sidhwa deals with a number of social issues like marriage, commodification, and victimization of women in the tribal areas of Pakistan. The bride (1983) gives a deeper analysis of male domination over females, especially through marriage. The novel specifically deals with the tribal areas where men believe in controlling females at every cost. The deep analysis of the novel The Bride (1983) allows debating on the subjection and exploitation of female figures under feminist theory of Mill. The metaphoric division of sexuality is a central point of focus in the constitution of the subjection of women. The subjection of women leads to the exchange of women as a commodity passed on from her father to her husband.
In tribal customs, women are being served to their men only. Mills' statement reveals women's status in the patriarchal society as “what I have said up to here is quite enough to show that custom, however universal it may be, doesn’t create any presumption. . . .in favor of the arrangements that put women in social and political subjection to men” (10).
This novel exposes patriarchal tradition and religion as equipment to entrench male dominance to govern women. The bride (1983) narrates three brides namely, Afshan, wife of Qasim, Zaitoon wife of Sakhi and Carol wife of Farukh. The very first bride in the novel is Afshan who is married to Qasim at the age of fifteen just because her father was unable to pay the loan he has taken from Qasim. The novel starts with the ten-year-old Qasim being handed the gun and told by his father that he is to be married soon. At that age, the boy doesn’t comprehend what marriage might demand, instead, he was delighted with the weapon.
Afshan is married to Qasim as a commodity in exchange for debt. She has to accept her fate without raising her voice. The choice of selection is denied to women. In The Bride (1983) Sidhwa states:
The sturdy, middle-aged tribesman knew just how generous the offer was. Any girl ---- and he had made sure that this one was able-bodied ---- was worth more than the load due. His three older sons were already married and now it was Qasim’s turn. The boy was still a little young, but the offer was too good to pass up. (Sidhwa 2)
Women are being subjected to by their fathers. The subjection of women becomes crucial and women become an object of exchange in the hands of their male members. The full amount of injustice is brought into focus when it is revealed that Qasim’s father “had thought of marrying the girl himself” (Sidhwa 2). The marriage ceremony which should be called a commodification ceremony was held but the wish of the girl was not asked whether she wants to marry or not. At the time of Nikah, when Afshan was asked if she accepts Qasim as her husband or not, each time aunt replied on her behalf of Afshan. “ thrice she was asked if she would accept Qasim, the son of Arbab, as her husband and old aunt murmured ‘yes’ on her behalf ” (Sidhwa 2).
After the marriage ceremony, the boy was locked with Afshan in a room. She was afraid to look at him. With trembling eyes, she asked are you my husband and he replied yes. She was told that her husband is young, but much she didn’t know. At first sight, she thought, “Was this a joke? She glanced beyond him, fervently hoping to see the man who had pushed his small brother forward to tease her. But there was no one.” (Sidhwa 3)
The whole issue rested in Qasim's father's hands and the choice could have gone whichever way and all without Afshan having any opinion valued by anyone. She is powerfully grabbed from her family and disjoined from her home to another condition which she now needs to call the 'home'. In any case, she, similar to the other female characters, has the flexibility to adjust rapidly to her new condition and she effectively wins the heart of Qasim's mother. Her emotions towards Qasim are maternal as opposed to that of the partner he predicted. The boy Qasim on his wedding night slips into the edge of the room and blubbing angrily falls asleep. Afshan lifts him to the bed, tucks his legs between her thighs, and culminates her marriage as it were. She acknowledges her part brightly. She helps her mother-in-law with household tasks and sometimes joins her in punishing Qasim for his stubbornness quality. “He challenges, I am your husband. How dare you” (Sidhwa 4).
Six years later, when Qasim touched figure 16, one-day Afshan was washing at a stream. He sneaks up on her and grips her breasts. Afshan slaps Qasim hard and screamed ‘...you shameless dog, you jackal, you! I’ll teach you to be brazen.’ (Sidhwa 5). An outsider from the next village passing by the stream came to rescue Afshan.  When he starts beating Qasim, he cries, “But she is my wife. Let go, she is my wife” (Sidhwa 5). Afshan exposes, “Yes, yes, let go, don’t touch him” (Sidhwa 5). He releases Qasim but tries to molest Afshan. Qasim throws a large stone at him and in a few seconds another. Before, the stranger can do any action Qasim holds his wife’s hand and runs away. Now the relationship has changed after so many years and at sixteen he became a father.
The story of Afshan deals with the sympathy toward the subjection of women. Females are being subjected to their fathers, husband, and sons. It also reveals how women deal with forced marriages. It suggests women have much less in fact no right to speak in the matter of their fate. Afshan’s silence indicates her resistance. Her silence can be taken as a silent rebellion in opposition to compelled marriage. But as she cannot speak up, she simply accepts her fate which was imposed on her by her father. Though secretly excited about her marriage, Afshan maintains her silence as an act of modest behavior. As Mill states in The Subjection of Women (1869) “women were taken by force, or regularly sold by their fathers to the husband” (17). It also shows that all through history women's voices have been suppressed. Some have taken it as their fate and refuge in silence while the protagonist of the novel occupied herself with the fight against male domineering society.
The Bride (1983) is based upon a true story narrated by Sidhwa when she visited the mountains of the Karakoram on her honeymoon. At that time there was a girl who was taken from the plains and married to a tribe man. Later she runs away from the brutality of her tribal husband. Unfortunately, after a few days, she was caught and murdered by her own husband in the name of honor (Suresh 2015). But in The Bride (1983), Bapsi Sidhwa allows her protagonist to run away from the male dominancy of tribal areas.  The Bride (1983) revolves around the main character of the story Zaitoon. Zaitoon, Qasim’s daughter was not her real daughter. At the time of partition, he found her and named her Zaitoon as his own late daughter. The second time the subjection of a daughter is revealed through Zaitoon’s character. This research problem also exposes the rigidness of a Kohistani man when Qasim decides to marry Zaitoon with his nephew Sakhi, the son of Misri Khan. Mariam wife of Nika protests against the decision of Qasim and says,
Brother Qasim, she coaxed, how can a girl brought up in Lahore, educated____ how can she be happy in the mountains? Tribal ways are different, you don’t know how changed you are….’ and as rancor settled on Qasim’s compressed lips, she continued in a rising passion, ‘they are savages. Brutish, uncouth, and ignorant! She will be miserable among them. Don’t you see? (Sidhwa 83)
Qasim is not moved and doesn’t change his decision when Mariam says that this marriage is just because of the money and some maize and goats Misri khan has offered to you. Qasim’s reply to Mariam’s statement shows his concern with his honor not with Zaitoon’s happiness. “Sister Mariam, it is not for the goats and money, please believe me. It is my word__ the word of a Kohistani” (Sidhwa 84).
 It explores the rigid codes of tribal men. They are just concerned with their words, honor, and traditions and after that, it is the woman who becomes the prey to the victimization in the name of honor. It was the second time in the novel that the daughters were subjected accordingly. They are being taken as a commodity but can’t cross the male dominant society.  As Zaitoon herself says when Marriam wants her to resist “I can’t cross my father” (Sidhwa129).
The universality of subordination of women and dominance of men is indicated in Mill’s book The Subjection of Women (1869) as,
—it would be a miracle if the objective of being attractive to men had not become the polar star of feminine education and the formation of character. And once men had acquired this great means of influence over the minds of women, an instinct of selfishness made them avail themselves of it to the utmost as means of keeping women in subjection, by telling them that an essential part of sexual attractiveness is meekness, submissiveness, and delivering all individual will into the hands of a man. [Mill goes on to say that if this kind of oppression-through-feelings had been built into other systems of servitude, they would have lasted longer, and would now be regarded as being just as ‘natural’ as the subjection of women, and would be challenged only by a thinker here and there.] (9-10)
After ages, the condition of women was the same. When Zaitoon turns ten, Mariam started thinking about her marriage. The worth of education was much less rather than of no importance.
Now that she’s learned to read the Holy Quran, What she will do with more reading and writing – boil and drink it? . . . No Allah willing, she’ll get married and have children. She’ll be safe only in her mother-in-law’s hands, a girl is never too young to marry. (Sidhwa 66-67)
This reveals the fact that women are being subjected to the hands of both, males and females. Women themselves also play a vital role in suppressing other female members of society. Firstly, it was Marriam who stopped Zaitoon from studying further and forced her to learn household tasks. The subjection of women, although was a trend started by the male members of the society who feared that learned women might stand as their equals. Learned women might question their supremacy. Thus they injected in women that the four walls of the house are everything to them. For this, Sidhwa gives further described as a symbol of male chauvinism and female subjugation.
Rooms with windows open to the street were allotted to the men: the dim maize of inner rooms to the women-a domain given over to procreation, female odors, and the interminable care of children. Smells of urine, stale food, and cooking hung in the unventilated air, churning slowly, room to room permeating wood, brick, and mortar. Generations of babies had wet mattresses, sofas and rugs spilled milk, sherbets, and foods and wiped hands-on ragged curtains; and just in case smell should fade, armies of newborn infants went on arriving to ensure the odors were perpetuated. (Sidhwa 57).
The subjection of a daughter is further exemplified through Zaitoon and Sakhi’s marriage. Though Zaitoon was so obedient to her father from the very beginning, she tried to free herself from the tribal cultures. When she realized she cannot adjust to the mountains she requested her father “But, Abba, I am not of the hills. I am not of your tribe. I am not even yours, she said quietly” (Sidhwa 128).  She further appeals to her father, “If I must marry, marry me to someone from the plains. That Jawan at the camp, Abba I think he likes me. I will die rather than live here” (Sidhwa 143). But as a rigid Kohistani man, Qasim’s statement reveals the daughter’s status in the patriarchal society.
‘Now understand this…’ Qasim’s tone was icily incisive. ‘I’ve given my words. Your marriage is to be a week from today. Tomorrow your betrothed goes to invite guests from the neighboring villages. I’ve given my word. On it depends my honor. It is dearer to me as life. If you besmirch it, I will kill you with my bare hands. (Sidhwa 143)
The daughter’s subjection is clearly shown through Mill’s essay, “The Subjection of Women” (1969), “The means used today are not as bad as they used to be·. Originally women were taken by force or regularly sold by their fathers to their husbands. Until fairly recently the father could dispose of his daughter in marriage at his own will and pleasure, without any regard to hers” (17). It also shows that all through history women's voices have been suppressed. Some took it as their fate and refuge in silence while the protagonist of the novel occupied herself with the fight against male domineering society. Zaitoon is shown as a chivalrous woman, who stands for herself. She raised her voice for her own self. Mill argues that no one will save women but it is the women themselves.
The destiny of both daughters in The Bride (1983) is the same. They suffered and were tortured both physically and mentally. Both daughters have the same fate but one accepted it as it is while the other stands against her subjection. Both of them were exploited by men. Zaitoon lost her honor as she was raped by two tribes’ men, her status, and her mind as well, as Ashiq declares, “I think the girl’s gone mad, sir” (Sidhwa 227).  The only reason for her disaster was her father’s decision without her consent. But after her submissiveness, she chose freedom from the brutality of her husband and finally crossed her father.