Feminism in Our Lady of Alice Bhatti.

Feminism in Our Lady of Alice Bhatti.

In Our Lady of Alice Bhatti, Mohammed Hanif discusses the relationships among gender, caste and religion in modern Pakistan through Alice Bhatti. Alice is a Catholic nurse working at a corrupt Karachi hospital, Sacred Heart Hospital for All Ailments. She is the daughter of a Catholic chuhra - Joseph Bhatti, who travels the city curing ulcers by reciting Muslim prayers when he is not cleaning the sewers as a lower-caste worker. While coming to work as a junior nurse at the hospital, Alice seeks to surmount her religious identity and caste and find fulfillment through honest work. 

At every turn in the novel we see that Alice is confronted with the perversions and corruption that depicts the corrupt Pakistani life today. Alice is being molested by the patients’ visitors while treating VIP patients. She gets married to Teddy - a thug-for-hire of the local police, who disappears for days while doing his work. Despite of his deep love for Alice, Teddy is more influenced by the advices of Inspector Malangi, his crooked senior. Similarly Alice is influenced more by the advice of her senior, Sister Hina Alvi and the result is that their marriage falls apart into the trap of distrust and both of them become powerless to it which leads to the brutal murder of Alice at the hands of Teddy and Alice being a Christian woman is not given any justice. Teddy is not accused of any thing. Teddy did not listen to what Alice has to say and did not give her any chance to explain the reason of leaving him. On the other hand, Alice was happy that she is returning to her husband and giving the good news of her being pregnant. She was not given any chance to herself.

1.      Power relation between men and women

The relationship between men and women clearly shows that the power rest with the male members in the novel. Women lack the necessary security they need and men treat them as toys in their hands. They molest them and treat them as worthless beings. Women are taken as the property of men. “Suspicious husband, brother protecting his honour, father protecting his honour, son protecting his honour, jilted lover avenging his honour, feuding farmers setting their water disputes, money lenders collecting their interest: most of life’s arguments, it seemed, got settled by doing various things to a woman’s body” (Page: 96). For men if they have to take revenge from any other man they take it on the female members. To protect their honour they even kill the women just to show their power over the other.

Throughout the novel we see Inspector Malangi commenting on women that they make men weak and make them feel fools of themselves.  Inspector Malangi while talking with Teddy tells him that “Women make you weak and impotent because they make perfectly normal men feel they are fools.” (Page: 161) This is what Inspector Malangi is telling to Teddy all the time and Teddy takes him as his mentor and seeks his advice in all matters. Teddy acts as he is told by Inspector Malangi no matter what the task is. He willing breaks the bone of his thumb because Inspector Malangi wanted him, to do so.

Women are harassed to such an extent that they cannot live freely in the society. They have to maintain a certain posture and talk in a certain way to keep them save from the corrupted men around them. As we see Alice in novel, who tries her best not to attract the attention of men, keep her reserved on all occasions – her way of talking with other, her style of walking and dressing herself up.

She tries to maintain a nondescript exterior; she learns the sideways glance instead of looking at people directly. She speaks in practiced, precise sentences so that she is not misunderstood. She chooses her words carefully, and if someone addresses her in Punjabi, she answers in Urdu, because an exchange in her mother tongue might be considered a promise of intimacy. She uses English for medical terms only, because she feels if she uses a word of English in her conversation she might be considered a bit forward. When she walks she walks with slightly hurried steps, as if she has an important but innocent appointment to keep. She avoids eye contact; she looks slightly over people’s heads as if looking out for somebody who might come into view at any moment. She doesn’t want anyone to think that she is alone and nobody is coming for her. She sidesteps even when she sees a boy half her age walking towards her, she walks around little puddles when she can easily leap over them; she thinks any act that involves stretching her legs might send the wrong signal. After all, this is not the kind of thing where you can leave your actions to subjective interpretations. She never eats in public. Putting something in your mouth is surely an invitation for someone to shove something horrible down your throat. If you show your hunger, you are obviously asking for something.

         (Mohammed Hanif, Our Lady of Alice Bhatti)

Males, on the other hand, are moving around freely and feel free to do what ever they like. Teddy says to Noor that “If a man goes nine seconds without thinking about a woman, chances are that he is not really a man.” (Page: 39). This depicts the real picture of men the Pakistani society. They cannot stay for such a short span of time if they are not thinking about women. Their whole life seems to revolve around the body of a woman. To be a real man one has to think about the body of a woman. This is what Teddy, who is older than Noor and who is supposed to guide Noor, is telling that young boy about being a man.

On one occasion Hanif highlights the way a “daughter or sister” is treated at our homes. He says “Mostly people call her ‘daughter’ or’ sister’ and then do exactly what they would do their own sisters and daughters: they treat her like a slave they bought at a clearance sale.”(Page: 82)The treatment that is given to a female member of the family at every home in Pakistan is shown here that they are treated as if one has got them from a sale and they are worthless due to this as they are bought at a cheap price. Alice is also clearly aware of this treatment of man and she has to bear it daily in the hospital where men call her sister or daughter and then treat her in an inhumane manner.

2.      What constitutes masculinity and femininity? Do characters take trait from opposite gender?

In our society the personality of a man or woman is not created by the person himself, it is the society and its rules and norms which constitute the personality of a male and female. The society set rules for both sexes and then from birth the child is told to live in a certain way and also it is incorporated into their minds that if they do not follow the rules of the society they will not be accepted by the society. In Hanif’s novel we also come along such details where the reader is told that the women had to carry a certain outlook and they had to take care of each and every thing whereas the men were all care free and they did what ever pleases them. Men do not have any kind of restriction over them.

According to Teddy’s comment a man is supposed to be a real man if he is all the time thinking about a woman. He tells Noor that “If a man goes nine seconds without thinking about a woman, chances are that he is not really a man”. (Page: 39) This is the role given to the men by the social construct that all men are supposed to be like this. It is explained as a quality of a real mans personality. Any man who is not acting according to this is not considered fit for the society.

In our society women are given the permission to work but they are still expected to be dependent on the male members of their family. They are expected to be subservient to them and follow their orders. Women are not expected to take any decision in the family. They work equal to that of the man but they are not given equal status that is given to a man. A woman is not expected to live alone; she has to face many difficulties which are created for them by the male members of the society. They are treated as an underdog in the society. Women have to trudge through the daily routine of harassment on the streets. Hanif through this novel has revealed the dirty secrets in fragments of the society. Women are faced with multitudes of problems in their life if they decide to live alone. As we she from the precautions that Alice takes in her daily routine: “She also doesn’t want to be the kind of girl who attracts the wrong kind of attention and ends up in the wrong place. She doesn’t want to be the kind of girl who is groped on buses, poked in service kitchens, who cannot walk a block without giving people the idea that she should be travelling blindfolded in a car boot. She doesn’t want to be someone who walks around demanding to be hacked to bits and buried in a back garden.”(Page: 96) We also see when Alice goes to the tailor to get her wedding dress stitched, the tailor again and again comments on her figure and these comments make her uncomfortable.

Alice learns to use a pistol from Teddy which is given to her by Sister Hina Alvi for her security. This is not usual of women in our society to learn such things. Women are not allowed to take the role of men instead they are supposed to be dependent on them. Even for learning to use a pistol Alice has to seek the help of Teddy.  This also shows the insecurity that a woman feels in this society.

On another occasion we see that Alice, after cutting the VIP patient’s visitor with the blade, is suspended for two week from the hospital. She is also told by Sister Hina Alvi that this suspension is for her own benefit and that she will be paid for these days as well. According to Alice she was “being punished for resisting an armed assault” (page: 77). But she cannot do anything for herself. Hina also tells her that if her complain is done in the police station then she will have to deal with all the males and in the VIP room it was just one male. “In our VIP room you had to deal with one male. In the police station there will be a room full of them in your face. You’ll need a chainsaw”. (Page: 77) Sister Hina Alvi also tells Alice that the VIP patients’ family has not made any complain yet which indicate that they have taken the matter in their hands and they will deal with in their own way and this will be more troublesome for her. It also shows that women are not allowed to resist against men and they are supposed to follow all their orders and if someone dares to do so then she will be punished for this in what ever way the men chooses.

By the end of the novel we see that Alice is punished by Teddy for leaving him and he throws the bottle of acid on her face. This is the punishment given to Alice for going against the norms and trying to leave him. For men there seem to be no restrictions.

3.      Operations of patriarchy

Our country is a male dominated country and this also revealed through certain instances in the novel as well. Men use women for their own enjoyment. As we see from Alice’s experience: “She has lived long enough to know that cutting up women is a sport older than cricket” (page: 95) Hanif tell us that Alice has experienced the state of a woman who is being used and then killed by men. She also came along many such men in her life at the brostal and at the hospital. Her whole life has passed watching such instances and meeting such women who have a story to tell.

“Not a single day - when she didn’t see a woman shot or hacked, strangled or suffocated, poisoned or burnt, hanged or buried alive. Suspicious husband, brother protecting his honour, father protecting his honour, son protecting his honour, jilted lover avenging his honour, feuding farmers setting their water disputes, money lenders collecting their interest: most of life’s arguments, it seemed, got settled by doing various things to a woman’s body”. (Page: 96)

Every day stories of women are told who are shot by men either for their honour or out or their extreme love for them. Men do not accept their defeat in any case and women are an easy target for them. All matters and disputes are settled by molesting for harassing the women.

When Alice tells Noor about a night mare that she has, Noor advises her to get married as it is the solution to all problems. “You should probably get married. I have heard that a good husband is the only cure for bad dreams. You know why? Because then you are sleeping with your bad dream” (Page: 43).

Sister Hina Alvi tells Alice about Fatima Jinnah and tells her that if she was not called the mother of nation instead she was called the sister of nation then the male would think her as a nurse and treat her the same way a nurse is treated.“Someone gives you their whole life and what do you call them: mother of the nation. Now if her (….Fatima Jinnah) brother is the father of the nation, how can she be the mother of the nation? They could have called her sister of the nation, but no. Because then people might have mistaken her for a nurse, one of us. It’s a nation of perverts, I tell you.” (Page: 55)

Inspector Malangi while telling Teddy how to make a woman happy tell him that he can do anything for women but still for no reason they remain sad. He says that it is impossible to keep any woman happy. “There is a deep hidden well of sadness in every woman, as inevitable as a pair of ovaries, and on certain afternoons its mouth yawns open and it can suck in every colour in this world”. (Page: 145) Teddy is told that there is no way he can make a woman happy. What ever he does he will end up with some thing that the woman is not satisfied and no happy about. This is the general concept that all men have about the women and so they do not put in any effort to make women happy instead they use women to make themselves happy.

Teddy is also told that if there is situation when he is trapped at home with his wife then he should think of his wife as the wife of another person and look at her in that way then his wife will become interesting for him.“When trapped at home, look at your woman from a different angle, pretend she is someone else’s wife.” (Page: 160) A person has no interest in his own wife and all men look at one another’s wife as if they are not at all happy with their wives and the other woman will be able to make them happy.

In a review about the novel and its author it is stated that:

Much like E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India, Hanif ends the novel with more ambiguity over the very questions he begins with—namely, what roles truth and order have in current Pakistani life and whether or not Catholic and Muslim relations can find common ground. Although the novel does not conclude as neatly as Hanif’s first novel, A Case of Exploding Mangoes, it is just as well written. What’s more, the characters who comprise Our Lady of Alice Bhatti offer more dimension than their predecessors in A Case of Exploding Mangoes. Mohammed Hanif’s second novel proves to be a deep, gritty, and exciting addition to his literary career. (Melanie Wattenbarger University of Nevada, Las Vegas)

Our lady of Alice Bhatti is a highly feminist novel which throws light on the condition of women in our society. Hanif has depicted in details all the weird and cruel situations that a woman has to come along in her daily routine.

Works cited

Hanif, Mohammed. Our lady of Alice Bhatti. Noida: Random House India, 2011. Print.

"Book Review: Our Lady Of Alice Bhatti by Mohammed Hanif at Literary Grand Rounds." Literarygrandrounds.com, 2013. Web. 2 Nov 2013. <http://literarygrandrounds.com/alice-bhatti-by-mohammed-hanif/>.

Untitled. 2013. Web. 2 Nov 2013. <http://In short, Our Lady of Alice Bhatti is a weird little story of a charity hospital that is bursting at its seams, a qualified nurse in deep trouble, her aging father, her ill guided religiously fanatic husband, her well meaning friend and the countless other connected dots that make their quirky world. It has been labelled with terms such as dark, comic and all sorts of quirky which is hundred percent right. After spending a while reading this book, nothing else comes to my mind as an apt description but ludicrous. The book has a bold and a heady start with the much needed sense of comic relief peppered in. Sadly for Alice Bhatti, even with all that, you realize early on that it isn’t going to end well. The sense of doom follows the reader through the book and her fate which is pre-written plays out itself until the final cruel execution. Mohammed Hanif’s writing is very tongue-in-cheek and totally irreverent. You should also make it a point to read his A Case of Exploding Mangoes which is once again an amazing book.  There are many twists in this plot which seem so illogical but you happily go with it because in the kind of world Alice and Teddy live, it’s not an uncommon occurrence. Their motives selfish or otherwise do not make you raise your eye brows because these people are survivors of their difficult and often cruel situations, ones who are making the best of what’s being dealt to them. There are some interesting minor characters in the book though not everybody gets too much coverage but some like Inspector Malangi with his bits on acquired wisdom, Sister Hina Alvi with her frankness and Joseph Bhatti with his unwavering faith, belief and the perpetual sense of being wronged, shine through the so called darkness of the plot.  Review copy provided by the publisher>.

"Our Lady of Alice Bhatti, Mohammed Hanif | World Literature Today." Worldliteraturetoday.org, 2013. Web. 2 Nov 2013. <http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2012/september/our-lady-alice-bhatti-mohammed-hanif#.Um_sRHCvWg4>.

"Our Lady of Alice Bhatti Quotes by Mohammed Hanif." Goodreads.com, 2013. Web. 2 Nov 2013. <http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/16739950-our-lady-of-alice-bhatti>.

Untitled. 2013. Web. 2 Nov 2013. <http://drirfanzafar.com/our-lady-of-alice-bhatti-by-mohammad-hanif/>.