South Asian Stories of Women Writers (in Bangla, Narir Kolome Dokkhin Asiar Golpo), a compilation of short stories, is a portrayal of women’s lives and their struggles in societies they live. The book, at the length of 624 pages, presents such a panorama of wonderful stories!
The book includes as many as 28 short stories written by the writers of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. It is bilingual; every short story has two versions--Bangla and English.
Stories originally written in Bangla have been translated into English and vice versa. Therefore, a host of translators, alongside fiction writers, have significantly contributed to the publication.
From Bangladesh came fourteen stories written by fourteen distinguished writers, including Mokbula Manzur, Rizia Rahman, Niaz Zaman, Selina Hossain, Purabi Basu, and Nasreen Jahan.
The contributors themselves span generations and borders: established names sit alongside emerging voices, and each represented country contributes its own set of authors, together forming a chorus that is polyphonic in style but consistent in its underlying concerns.
The editors, Nur Quamrun Naher and Rokeya Islam, are themselves fiction writers, and their own stories have naturally earned a place in the volume.
How are South Asian societies, and how can they be connected through literature?
Societies are different, but women face more or less the same problems—discrimination and repression. They are often marginalized and put to troubles by the patriarchal apparatus.
Stories of women are as appealing as men. They possess distinctive taste and tone. Women writers writing on women’s problems become more truthful, and readers should like the feminine focus.
The stories are interesting in themselves.
In “Primordial” by Mokbula Manzur, we find a fury in a village woman, Saburan, who punishes her husband, Suruj, for the crime of selling her younger sister to a brothel.
“Ensnaring Birds” by Selina Hossain centers on the rape of a minor girl and the attempts of two journalists to find the real criminals.
Nasreen Jahan in “The Stranger” brings up the issue of the existence of Halala marriage in the Muslim community. Here divorced Kusum is wooed by her rogue (ex)husband, Hafiz, to come back to him, but the religious rule does not allow it.
To legalize a comeback, it is necessary for the divorced woman to be wed to another man who will divorce her again. Accordingly, Kusum is wed with a beggar, but things go awry. Kusum decides to stay with the beggar, avoiding Hafiz.
The book carries the mark of the brilliance of writers, of translators, and of editors. The writers, packed together, talk in a polyphonic voice on women's issues.
The plots are varied, but they share the same sentiment--no injustice to women. Therefore, the narratives have a feminist undertone.
Women demand respect and recognition in society. They are in constant competition and conflict with men.
The stories in the book point to gender binary and drive human conscience towards a humane existence. It is set to play its own role for creating consciousness of women's rights and raising its voice against any form of gender discrimination.
The book may provide a pleasant reading experience for the general readers. And it will be a particularly useful compendium for the researchers interested in South Asian women writers and writings.
Dr Binoy Barman teaches English at Daffodil International University and serves as Executive Editor of the Journal of Society and Progress (JSP).