Weakness of Faith and the Silenced Exploitation of Women in Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi’s “A Lament”

Abstract

A large number of women are exploited by the fake saints (peers) in Pakistan. Though the matter requires social, ethical, religious as well as familial attention, our society keeps its eyes shut in this regard. The victims are silenced and the exploitative events are rarely voiced. The paper intends to explore the reasons for this aphonic exploitation of women through an analysis of a short story “A Lament” by Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi in the light of Yael Danieli’s theory of “conspiracy of silence”. Narrating the story of Ranu, a young girl exploited at the hands of a peer (saint), Qasmi unravels the horrors of some of the darkest of social evils committed in the name of spirituality practiced through fake religious rituals.