Representing and Resisting Rape: Re-appropriation of the Female Body in Usha Ganguly’s Hum Mukhtara

Abstract

ABSTRACT Women, from time immemorial, are always considered subservient to men, and they have remained at the disposal of the head of the family, the father. They are denied their basic human rights and the ‘biological control over their bodies’ as woman is the sexual property of her family and at the same time her body is negotiated for sustaining family honour. The female body is subjected to regulation and control in order to achieve the intended docility, a process through which power is dissociated from the body. The guardianship of women’s bodies make men proud possessor of property rights as well as self-acclaimed protector from their enemies. The body of the woman is the site for contesting where men can take revenge upon other men by violating her sexuality, thus, taking revenge on her ‘owner.’ Usha Ganguly’s play, Hum Mukhtara, an adaptation of Mukhtar Mai’s sensational and inspirational autobiography, In the Name of Honor: A Memoir, registers the protest of a victim of an institution sanctioned gang rape who later became one of the foremost figures of women empowerment in one of the most hostile countries for women in the world, Pakistan. Although the play brings out the inhuman brutality of the patriarchal society, it is a play of hope and inspiration as the protagonist emerges victorious by transcending the notions of ‘izzat’ (honour) and stigma to fight back against her tormentors, turning her docile body into a site of resistance. The present paper seeks to interrogate Usha Ganguly’s use of the theatrical space in the play to protest against the materialisation and objectification of female body by advocating forcefully for the empowerment of women and emancipation from their bodily constrictions.