Abstract

In an Eastern society, the institution of matrimony is influenced by social, cultural, psychological, emotional, religious and familial influences. Using concepts of “mimicry” and “the Other” under theoretical stances of mimicry by Bhaba (1994) and “the Other” by Simone De Beauvoir (1956), How it Happened (2013) is investigated in this study. These frameworks explicate the violation and suppression of women in terms of matrimonial affairs in the novel. The findings revealed that the elderly female characters mimic the patriarchal norms by extending them to the next level through matriarchy. It is found that the matriarchy by the elder female characters is authoritative, unchallenged and influential that even the male characters in the novel cannot interfere in the female jurisdiction in matrimonial decisions and verdicts. However, the analysis also revealed that there was sexism in terms of matrimonial choices in which male had the freedom to choose while the female had none.

Key Words

Mimicry, The Other, Sexism, Patriarchy, Matriarchy

Introduction

One of the most striking characteristics of colonial discourse is the duality of “self” and “other”. Bhabha (1994b) states that the Other symbolizes power, and mimicking the Other is like following the power. But the problem of mimicry lies in the fact that the one who is mimicking forgets his own stance, and instead of representing his own self, he repeats the Other, and it leads him to nothingness and insignificance confronting certain psychological pressures. 

Bhaba (1994a) discuss that colonialism is straightforward oppression and violence and an era of complex and diverse cultural contacts and interactions. Mimicry emphasizes the gap between the model of civility offered by European Illumination and its colonial imitation in an inaccurate style. This notion is based on the term presented by Fanon in Black Skin, White Masks (1994). The concept, notion or idea of the word mimicry has been transferred from conventional to current. The term mimicry, in the recent literature, has been defined as acting or behaving in terms of the one which is otherwise detested or repelled or are unknowingly admired by the same person. Under the guise of mimicry, a person treats the people around in an exceptionally hostile manner. 

The adverse or hostile treatment presented others as insignificant. The Other, in post-colonial discourse, has been coined to name those who are regarded as a disreputable group, especially used in the context of gender discrimination and women subjugation in society.  In the late 19th century, a dissent against this term began for equal rights in speech for women in almost every field, and it was marked with the name of feminism. This movement was basically concerned about equality among the sexes (Lewis, 2008). The mistreatment which women are facing in almost every field is based on cultural norms and patriarchal notions. Feminism revolted against discrimination created by society and culture. 

Women have faced discrimination in almost every field. Hence, in the domain of literature, feminists focus on the representation of women in various works of art.  It checks the use of language, symbols, semiotics etc. which presented women as the Other, as declared by Beauvoir (1956) in her ground-breaking work, “What place has humanity made for this portion of itself which, while included within it, is defined as the Other? What rights have been conceded to it? How have men defined her?” (p. 91). Simone de Beauvoir was entitled as the greatest feminist theorist by Moi in 1985 (as cited in Moi, 2002).  The concept of “Otherness” (Beauvoir, 1953, p. 29) in The Second Sex does significant in gender studies and feminist discourses. 

How It Happened (2013) by Shazaf Fatima Haider depicts that the woman of an upper middle of current age might enjoy the liberty of higher education and independence in choice of career; but under all this apparently seeming freedom, she is still entangled in some cultural, traditional and sectarian constraints.

Literature Review and Background

Generally, mimicry is an imitation of one species by another. The Webster’s Dictionary (2014) defined mimicry as a “close resemblance, in color, form or behavior of one organism to another in its environment…it serves as a camouflage to disguise or conceal the organism from predators”. This is not harmonizing with the background but becoming background (Bhabha, 1994a).  Lacan visioned mimicry as camouflage. The colonizer, like a snake, articulated effective strategies of colonial power and mimicry, articulated it two-fold. Bhaba saw that mimic colonial men are intensified by hybridity that subverted colonial power and culture with hybridity and multiculturism. Ashcroft (2005) contradicts Bhabha’s concept of cultural purity and that all cultural interactions change the participants as the wrath of the colonials appears in the inadaptability and stubbornness to change.

According to Bhabha (1994b), a mimicry is a form of colonial discourse. It is something where the known, permissible and unknown, concealed intersects at some point. Mimicry, under cover of camouflage, not only revalues the normative knowledge of the priority of race but also rearticulates the presence of otherness which it disavows. Bhabha believed that one should know the defining limit of one’s identity, as it will help them to define the world as others. Hybridity is formed with the amalgamation and diffusion of various identities. According to Bhabha (1994a), hybridity has the potential to intervene and dislocate the process of colonization. Mimicry is the challenge of colonial subjection. Thus, the mimic man tries to occupy the impossible space between cultures. 

Mimicry is a representation of a post-colonial state with a binary opposition between power and de 

authorization. It is a part of a larger concept of a post-colonial state (Bhabha, 1994b).  The demand on the colonized to be like the colonizer is actually the real essence of mimicry. The proclamation of authority on the colonized and following their masters gave rise to mimicry. Mimicry can also be taken as a way of escaping control. Leela Gandhi, in her book Postcolonial Theory, defines mimicry as a skilful and shrewd weapon of anti-colonialism, which is an ambivalent mixture of great respect as well as disobedience (1998). Christopher Bracken called Bhabha’s term mimicry a “self-defeating structure of colonial discourse”. He perceptively called mimicry “ironic” in its nature. Mimicry, according to Christopher, “a state of ambivalence and undermines the claims of imperial discourse,” making it impossible to isolate the racial essence (1999, p. 506).

Bhabha (1994a) stated that mimicry copies language, culture and ideas with a difference. Mimicry also desires for a recognizably reformed Other and that it is constructed around ambivalence. It is never accurate, and it of dual nature with at once resemblance and menace. In addition, Bhabha also asserted that those who try to emerge as authentic through mimicry and that via the process of writing are the final ironies of partial representation. The mask of mimicry conceals no presence or identity. In mimicry, identity is never identical to itself. Hence, identity in mimicry normally operates in metaphor. The comic trait of mimicry is as important as anything. The discourse of colonialism is serious and solemn. Bhabha argues that ambivalence and mimicry are not similar. It is the desire of a reformed recognizable Other to do colonial mimicry. 

The visibility of mimicry is another important aspect. The desire to be represented as authentic in a colonial discourse actually refers to the partiality of one’s presence in that discourse. It demands both similarity and difference in the figures of the colonized. Bhabha (1994b) argues that visual is the key element of mimicry, and it makes clear connections with stereotypes. He asserted that mimicry’s visibility is always produced at the site of interdiction. 

The Mimic Men (1967), written by V.S Naipaul, represents mimicry with an identity crisis. Bhabha believes that the structure of mimicry is driven by a fundamental but unstable urge on the part of colonial authority. The undermining of the colonizer’s apparently stable original identity is the consequences of mimicry. 

Mimicry is an unconscious attempt to do away from ambivalence and hegemony. In the literary productions by both male and female, mimicry, duality, ambivalence and hegemony were portrayed by these writers. But written literature by men deprived women of power. Hence, with the advent of female writers, male voice standardized literature with canonization while the female is the “other” that is, “occasionally remembered in special numbers” (Strantton, 1994, p. 4).

The war against inequality was waged in antiquity by women in the form of a political movement known as feminism. This movement is actually discussing combat of “the Other” for her rights. There were many resistances against women subjugation, but formally, the movement was reckoned emerging wave in the last century.  It was in the twentieth century when feminist movements started, and it focused on liberating women from male dominance in the United States and Europe.  There has been a long struggle for women to get their rights. Otherness is a theory about the objectification of women and their predicament in social, political and cultural life. She is being marginalized and taken as a man’s inferior Other (Gines, 2014). It puts women into a dichotomous relationship with men. Men are the centre of the manmade society, whereas women, the marginal, men the standard, whereas women the non-standard. 

Simone De Beauvoir, in 1956, laid developmental steps towards Feminist philosophy by providing basic terminology for women’s issues and needs (Gines, 2014). During the ’50s, women felt deeply displaced and frustrated because the same society unaccepted their participation in the public sphere (Andre, 2008). Educated women of the upper-middle class who had already begun to develop critical thinking were willing to participate fully in society. But the concept of the New Man evolved who cherish reason and emotion. However, the feminist theories of Beauvoir served as an eye-opener for the female activist who is ready to express her emotions and her dissatisfaction with gender discrimination. 

The Women writers and critics took up the gauntlet to address the issues related to womenfolk. More balanced views and perspectives dominate Pakistani literature today. Gender as a theory is ubiquitous in modern humanistic studies (Kolawale, 2000). Discrimination of women in various walks of life has been highlighted by multiple authors. Among the writers carrying the baton of promoting women issues in South Asia is Haider (2013). The writer explored subjects like love, courtship, marriage for passion and liberation. The study attempts to describe the mimicry of patriarchy in matriarchy and the treatment of women as others in the undertaken novel with reference to particular themes.

The selected novel depicts the Pakistani society where the marriages of children are settled by the elders of the family. The elders, especially the women like grandparents, are active in matchmaking. A whole authoritative procedure is followed in scrutinizing the background, religion, age, culture, social status and position of the family of the boy or girl in prospect. The older females of the family and non-influential, stubborn and persistent in their decisions and the authority cannot be challenged or called upon by anyone in the family. Their decisions are the final marks of superiority, and even the men cannot step into their jurisdiction. They are not concerned about the effects their decisions could make on the lives of children; rather, they enjoy their unchallenged sovereignty in the realm.

The undertaken qualitative descriptive research is limited to the text of the novel, How It Happened.  The theory of “mimicry” by Bhaba (1994a) and “the Other” by Beauvoir (1956) have been employed to analyze the text. The analysis focus on the passages, dialogues, incidents and characters of How it Happened. The study is delimited to the themes of violation of women’s rights, Sexism, out casting a woman by completely ignoring her say in matrimonial affairs. 

The present study aims to explore the mimicry of patriarchy as depicted by Haider (2013) in the novel How It Happened, and to find out the embedded elements of sexism instances related to matrimony, through which women are portrayed as the Other in their social life in the novel How It Happened.

This research study is important as it represents the perspective of ‘mimicry’ in terms of norms pertaining to marriages and marital ritual processes. The study also elaborates the constraints imposed upon women, especially in matters of choosing a life partner by patriarchy that makes matrimonial decisions. The foresightedness and liberal thinking of the so-called upper-middle-class women in the novel How it Happened lead them nowhere but engaging themselves in the shackles of patriarchy. This study signifies that women are treated as ‘the Other’ by none other but by women themselves who knowingly or unknowingly mimic the patriarchy which they themselves have been facing. The study will benefit the general readers and critics of societal norms, the defenders of feminism, and will bring new avenues in terms and society and human attitudes.   

Analysis and Discussion

In marital affairs, it is the economic advantages that are the prime consideration for both the boy and girl. It is the elderly women or the matriarchs who play an essential role to finalize the mercenary benefits for the marriage bond.  In How It Happened, the submissive nature has been depicted by Parveen, the daughter-in-law of Qurrat Dadi. Her daughter Naureen submits to the arranged marriage by her parents. The elderly women who once submitted to their elders anticipate the same kind of attitude from their youngsters. Dadi Gulbahar Baigum, who not only once but almost always submitted to the patriarchs of her family in a humble phrase “Jee acha Abba Huzoor”, is now expecting the same kind of submissive nature from her youngsters. She believes that submissiveness is the key to a happy life and the epitome of an exemplary girl. In one of the line, Dadi says that the real virtue of a girl lies in responding in affirmative to her parents wish. (Haider, 2013, p. 35). It is really ironic to find the attitude of elderly women unconsciously supporting the ideology of patriarchy. In their daily routine, no matter how adversely they criticize men and their rules but at the end of the day, it is women who then find manmade rules as the only respectable way of getting themselves approved. At the end of the day, they happen to forget that they are unconsciously putting efforts to please their colonizers. In such a situation, mimicry implicitly offers an open platform for an agency and even a model for the agency. In matrimonial affairs, it is money that weighed more than anything else. Age is seldom considered, especially when if the groom is extremely wealthy. Shireen, in How it Happened, will have a great fortune and will be “very wealthy” once she marries, “a fifty-five-year-old man” (p. 48) declares the mother. Beauvoir (1956) wittingly quips about women’s submissive position as “condemned to be slave or idol, who plays the part of the Other and hold only uncertain power. Women never chose this position for themselves. So, Haider depicts the same situation in her novel. She says that women were not granted any choices, and they were hurled out like slaves.

The search of the girl and then her presentation before strangers for approval is aptly described by Beauvoir as “buying and selling of a woman”. She is first presented like a cattle or a commodity which is then being scrutinized and then either rejected or bought. The very first step towards enslavement starts with presenting a woman for approval. Haseena Phupoo, in a plain, faced and twenty-seven in age, is the embodiment of ‘other’ in the novel. Her mother, who is now old, is desperate to get her daughter married, as she is over the approved age of marriage. A divorcee with no hair and no sense of humor is being arranged for Haseena phuppo (Haider, 2013, p. 15). An old maid Shabban, unmarried, thirty-five, proudly imparts to Saleha that in their family, girls never work but marry or take care of their fathers and brothers (p. 181). Zeba, on rejecting Alam Bhai’s proposal, was warned by Dadi that stubborn girls never get a “decent proposal” (p. 111). In addition, Alam Bhai forcing Zeba into marriage and describes his own mindset about a single woman. He tells her that girls need to marry to be complete and secure. They need a man and children to satisfy themselves. Alam Bhai found his boss, who was a single woman, frustrated and incomplete (p. 106). Here we behold that the position of a single woman in a patriarchal society is one way or another being pressurized for submission. According to Beauvoir (1956), in an organized patriarchal society, a woman is a slave or beast of a burden with a human face whose patriarchal master being tyrannical, exercises his tyrannical authority and is exalted with pride (p. 103). The patriarchal order thrust decisions upon women to decide about their lives. Haider has depicted the same kind of pressure upon women faced by them.  

In order to reorganize the patriarchal space, women need to have some expansion. Appreciating the limitations of women’s use of their position in the margin will help them galvanize for feminist struggle. Women do not constitute a single group that could represent them like Jews, blacks or the proletariat. They have no past or history, nor do they have any such solidarity like that of a working-class (Beauvoir, 1980). Similarly, Haider (2013) writes that the discussion begins with an inquiry on the marital status of a boy or girl. Thus, Zeba hears that “I have a son who’s thirty-three years old. Is she spoken for?” (p. 129). Another candidate’s mother candidly asked Zeba about her husband’s name to confirm that she was unmarried (p. 194). The Second Sex (1956) writer expounds that a woman in a patriarchal society dependent upon the circumstances under which she acquires (Beauvoir, 1956). Haider depicts that women have no solid existence of their own; they are pursued, preyed and then stamped of property. 

For Bhabha, mimicry is an unsettled imitation which is the desire for a reformed and recognizable Other (1994a). The text revealed that getting married at the prescribed age of a society is a matter of boast both for the girl as well as family. Dadi received quite rude remarks for remaining disgracefully single for a duration of time in which she should have provided a family to her husband (Haider, 1996). The demand of the families is the want of a “younger girl” (p. 3). This remark of Dadi depicts the rejection of mortification and further practicing it through mimicry in a matriarchy. Dadi, though being rejected once on the same criteria, feel no guilt in preferring the same standard for Haroon. She also want that of a young and immature girl.  The bound cultural concept regarding matrimonial affairs illustrates Dadi’s concern about Zeba’s age and marriage. According to Dadi, if Zeba couldn’t manage to have a good proposal at this age, then one day, she will be too old for any decent proposal (p. 111). Dadi believes as well as wants Zeba to get married soon as she will get twenty-six by next year, which is taking her away from an appropriate age of marriage. In addition, she also stresses the shortage of time. She believes that that the best time and age for marriage is slipping away, so there is no “plenty of time” left. Dadi herself was the mother of five children, and she was quite proud of it (p. 82). As a theorist, Beauvoir (1956) asserts that in this world, a man is defined as a human being, whereas a woman is a female, a gendered being (p. 77). Man considers himself to be the benefactor, redeemer or liberator of women. Hence, this very belief of a man makes him think about woman as their slaves who need a master. The patriarchal mind in How It Happened is transformed into a matriarchal state of thought, displaying the same sense of suppressing the weak.

Dadi mimics patriarchy in an authoritative tone. Mimicry, as a sign of double articulation, has a profound and disturbing effect on colonial discourse. Thus, mimicry is both similarity and a threat (Bhabha, 1994a). Qurrat Dadi ironically uttered to Dadi that times have changed; Zeba turning twenty-six next month is not a big issue in the present time.  She also emphasized that a girl turning nineteen used to be considered as rotting and overripe banana (p. 261). In the novel How It Happened, the age of Haseena Phupoo becomes a serious issue when she turns twenty-seven (p. 15). The son of Amma Rizwi, after Zeba’s rejection, turned the proposal to Saleha. Dadi selected a girl of sixteen for Haroon and claimed that she was the one they were looking for (p. 42), but the decision was collectively declined by the entire Bandian family.  Dadi, who spent an entire life of marginalization, still becomes a member of attention when she takes control of everything and becomes a mimic of the patriarch, a matriarch. The patriarchal order keeps her politically active. Everybody pleads for her voice and her normalcy, but she plays her role in a matrimonial affair that elicits an urgent rectification. 

Beauvoir’s depiction of women as Other is gestural rather than linguistic. It is based on a theatrical language. The power comes from the language of opposition in the patriarchal order. It reflected woman’s marginalization. Subversion becomes an expression of a woman’s voice, acknowledgement and significance. In an orchestrated non-action form, she dramatizes what she should have been but which she is not because of her subordination. Haider (2013), in her novel, portrays all of the essential elements which one must possess in a patriarchal society for the eligibility of marriage. Traits like virginity, looks, age and luck mattered more in finding the best suitor. Proclamation of someone’s engagement actually meant that the girl possesses all of the essential elements for marriage and that she is very lucky (Haider, 2013, p. 82). Dadi declares chastity, early age, beauty and fortune as virtues of a girl (p. 83).  In opposition to that, Qurrat Dadi adds education as an accomplishment that will add value to a girl’s upbringing and also raise her possibilities of getting a good marriage proposal. But Dadi opposes it and says that education only makes girls more stubborn and arrogant (p. 111), and they need to receive bitter tirade. It is overtly reckoned that no matter how much a woman is educated, her state will always be inferior to man due to her biological weaknesses. This fact has made men feel about themselves as superior as mentioned in The Second Sex (1956), “women’s biological or physical weakness constitute an inferiority…and it is enough to make her appear powerless” (Beauvoir, p. 79). Cultural norms, trends and traditions have entangled women into many restrictions which do not prevail on males. 

Haider (2013), in her novel, depicts clearly how plain girls face torments while getting marriage proposals or getting married. Girls with no high fortune or attractive features have to pay a heavy price for that. Dadi relates the torture she experienced to Saleha she tells her that she received no proper proposals for being not as fair as milk (Haider, 2013, p. 2). According to plain Dadi, plain faces girls are like “Some having blunt noses while others having small or no lips at all” (p. 2). In addition, there are girls like Naureen, who belonged to less reputable family happened to get marry earlier than Zeba (p. 217) besides been plain-looking girl (p. 152). Beauvoir (1956) argues that women are integrated within families as slaves or vassals and they are dominated by their fathers and brothers. They have always been given in marriage by certain males to other males (p. 416). Dadi replicates the degradation once she faced in her youth. She had no feelings for repeating the same dogmas which made her suffer. She in the form of a matriarch replicates all that which once was a problem for her. 

The Second Sex (1988 ed.) demonstrates Beauvoir’s examination that women is defined and distinguished with reference to man and not vice versa. Patriarchy defines her as Object and the Other (p.16). History is replete with examples in which women mobilizations with feminist struggle; like in African liberation war (Van Allen, 1976, p. 65). In the novel, Zeba continued her rebellions for not wearing what Dadi suggested and not serving any refreshments to suitors or their families (p. 151). Even if a woman is fecund, she is still subdued by a superior force of a man. He is still her master, the master of the fertile earth; she is fated to be overpowered, owned and exploited like nature whose fertility she embodies (Beauvoir, 1956). Although the protests by Zeba was forced to act and parade before the suitors and their families. For it is he who is to served and entertained. Hence, she is not regarded as an autonomous being who could do whatever she wants (Beauvoir,1988). Zeba’s revolt turned out to be an abnormal act which severely criticized and disapproved by society. A woman like this is placed in a more ambiguous position than a man. Nobody wants to understand her because the already fixed schema does not cater to anti-patriarchal stunts (Moi, 1985).

Beauvoir suggested that a woman is not subject to self for consciousness for emancipation. Otherness is something intra-psychic as well as institutional. Hence, her acceptance is not yet a part of an institution.  She claimed that “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman” (Beauvoir, 1988, p. 295). Haider (2013) depicts that a woman when reaches to the position when she can exercise her matriarchal roles enjoys it undeniably. She plays the role of patriarchs and she mimics it. Matriarchs, unfortunately while patriarchs forget to define themselves as their mind schema could read and comprehend what they have received once no matter how harsh or wrong it was. The concept of a woman being man’s other is internalized by women themselves, and they enact patriarchal prescribed roles. In the novel Dadi clearly declares that the fate of women is decided by elders (usually by men) and they never take matters into their own hands (p. 7). The social construction of gender beyond biological sex and human needs has had a significant impact on the strengthening of the discourse of the Other. This groundwork can be clearly seen in the statements of Dadi when she talks about love marriage as a stigma. Dadi claims that none of their grandmothers dared to stigmatize themselves with the label of love marriage (p. 9). Hence, for Haroon, Dadi considered it as her sole duty to find a match for him.  Love marriage was neither intelligible in patriarchal schema nor in matriarchal.  Dadi exercised her matriarchal powers and authoritatively declared Zeba’s engagement to Gullan by asserting that she knows what’s best for Zeba (p. 188). Abbu seconded Dadi by declaring that everyone shall mind their manners as elders know well what to decide (p. 211). The date of marriage also becomes a grave issue. Dadi expresses her anger for not being listened to and says that this will land them into trouble (p. 87). In addition, the rejection of Saleha’s proposal made Dadi furious (p. 49). But as Haroon was single-handedly raised and always treated like a prince by Dadi, so she takes the responsibility of arranging his marriage like a proud matriarch (p. 84). 

Haider in her novel, How it Happened has depicted women’s otherness and gender objectification. The discourse in the text has expressed resistance, violation of rights and recognition of separateness. Beauvoir’s otherness, gender objectification and marginalized position of women can be found in Haider’s novel. The feminism movement explore the relegation of African women to “de-womanized” (Sofola, 1998, p. 52). The display of bachelors and bachelorettes in Haider’s How it Happened depicted how women have been scrutinized as commodities. The wedding of Haroon brought hunters for Zeba’s and for having fair skin color (Haider, 2013, p. 120). All of the aunts presented their boys as superheroes. They went on and on about the amazing attributes their boys possessed (p. 150). Beauvoir (1956) proclaimed that men regarded women from their perspectives and that is where women’s capacity was brought into ruins. Men’s project of enrichment and expansion starts with women’s objectification (Beauvoir, p. 83). Zeba was stared by another aunty like a paralyzed fly looking at the approaching spider (p. 129) and Zeba resembled mere prey trapped into a hyenas cage (p. 195). Women themselves make others feel separated. Dadi makes Falaq separated and others by saying that she was unlucky for not being chased by young men because she wasn’t that pretty (p. 292).  This relegation ranked women in the periphery margins.  

Mimicry being an ambivalent phenomenon or an idea that mimics no fixed, final, foundational identity. The mimicked one has no fixed identity, and the one mimicking has no genuine identity. Sometimes the latent patriarchy is being mimicked by the entire dominant group. In How it Happened, the elders of the family enjoyed the authority of deciding matrimonial affairs, and the decision is expected to be undauntedly accepted by both girl and boy.  Dadi herself been the victim of rejection once when the family was looking for a younger girl for their son practised did not protest against the same practice of presentations (Haider, 2013, p. 3). Zeba, every time flashed with anger whenever a new family came to see her. For her, this practice was not less than a mortification (p. 151). The mothers of suitors would not hesitate in mentioning that they have looked at several other girls as well for their son (p. 141). Beauvoir (1956) asserts this state of woman as private property, property and a slave. Eventually, a man becomes her proprietor and master.  For Haroon, his family interviewed six girls to find or buy the perfect one (p. 41). Fati Phups questioned if she and her, “brother are making her (Zeba’s) life exceedingly difficult” (p. 226) by intruding, to which Dadi replied that girls of respectable families have no concept of dating boys (p. 211).

It has been observed throughout history that women have no subjectivity of her own. She has been denied her own individuality and has been reduced as objects of men. She is being construed as man’s Other (Moi, 1985). Haider (2013), in her novel, has described the pain girls undergo on being presented or rejected for marriage. Saleha mother admits feeling like a sacrificial animal, and the strangers have come to buy her Baqra (Haider, 2013, p. 17). The body of a woman is something a man buys and to which he represents his capital. Eventually, she is authorized to be exploited by him (Beauvoir, 1956). Saleha finds the presentation phase week torturous and unpleasant (p. 151). She did not like people passing comments, both positive and negative, about her sister and her sister’s face (p. 152). Zeba found the display of hers in front of men as something which, according to her, could not be described in words (p. 212). She finds this display like an inspection of customers buying cattle (p. 211). In this entire scenario, it was Dai who always dragged Zeba into grand display and auction (p. 135). The sexual differences of the present times serve only to subordinate women (Macklem, 2003). But Beauvoir (1956) also observed that man is also dependant on a woman. The disquieting character of a woman has kept man dependent on her even while she was dependent on him. 

Conclusion

The aim of this study was to explore and portray the concepts of “otherness” by Simone de Beauvoir (1953) and “mimicry” by Bhabha (1994) in the novel How it Happened by (Haider, 2013). These frameworks focused on depicting the violation of women’s rights in marital affairs and suppression of their voices by none other than the women and the patriarch mimicry into a matriarchy.  

In the analysis of the novel, various societal, social, cultural and sectarian restrictions imposed on women have been described. These restrictions are strongly implemented by mimicry of the patriarchy in the form of stakeholders of matriarchy who successfully violates women rights with no regard or regrets. It has also been observed that the position of women as “Other” in the undertaken text has been depicted in diverse ways. Her individuality, subjectivity and sexuality have been oppressed in several different ways. The ideology of patriarchy privileges one sex over the other. In this novel, sexism was found to be one of the dominant themes when older women actually played their part in making the younger generation a representation models for men. Unfortunately, the fight against “otherness” has been depicted as a matter of choice. 

This critical study of How It Happened proved that women’s individuality is solely suppressed to please men or the ideology of patriarchy. All those struggles which restore the power of patriarchy leave women in a marginalized position (Arnfred, 1988; Aina, 1988). Those who see patriarchy as a norm should be re-educated. There is a need of incorporating feminist concerns in the strategies of gender partnership for the liberation struggles. Hence, these incorporations will help in strengthening the desire for mobilizing the feminist agenda.  

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