Beyond the Bounds of Honor

This is a powerful and poignant portrayal of human character and courage, though, in its
expression it carries elements of quiet dignity and sublime sacrifice, all originating within the confines
of archaic family and tribal traditions. It characterizes the progressively developing personality and
psychological mind-set of a young woman whose emotional conflicts in her formative years of growth
tend to reinforce her convictions in the sheer respect of human values. As these conflicts conflagrate
into assuming more intense dimensions, there comes the recognition to placate her turmoil with
balancing acts. Her consciousness for securing her social identity starts to take effect. Firstly, through
gaining a quality education; then, to be followed by a compatible professional occupation. Amidst
these compelling challenges, however, there also surfaces the need for companionship and love,
almost as a natural consequence of the gruelling demands of her ultimate goals and objectives in life.

In reality, the story captures the unpleasant, and often horrendous, paradigms of centrality to
tradition in Pakistan’s tribal societies. The practice of vani is prevalent in many tribal communities of
Pakistan whereby disputes within opposing parties are settled through marital arrangements, where
the dispute is essentially perceived to be an act of having disparaged someone’s ‘honor’. Often, this
involves offering young girls to elderly, or otherwise socially advantaged and married men, as a
plausible means of retribution. The decisions are taken within the precincts of the tribal jirga that
officiates in all matters pertaining to the collective interest of the community. But, by its very nature,
the concept of vani is embedded within the forces of sheer lust and greed. More often than not, the
girls end up trapped between duty and desire. Sometimes, though, there is a higher price to be paid —
the so-called practice of ‘honor killing.’

Zainab, the central character in the story, is born into a wedlock that transpires through the
tradition of vani. Her mother, Zehra, the victim in context, however, is fortunate enough to have her
husband, Asad, the beneficiary in context, an educated and an empathetic individual being sensitized
by the irony of justice all around. In fact, in coming forward himself as a claimant for justice, he is
actually contriving an escape route for his newly-wed bride, which his family, at large, fails to
perceive in time. Asad works for a government department that makes up an opening for him to get
transferred from his present rural district to a bigger township. In the process, he demands from his
family that they allow his bride to accompany him. That being conceded, Asad unveils his future
plans to Zehra of liberating her from the bounds of traditions who, of course, accepts it as the better of
choices. Little she was aware of life’s later progressions, her youthful innocence relegating reason
beneath everything else. In fact, it was several months later that she actually comes to know what had
perpetrated her bondage in the first place. Asad recounts how his elder sister was sexually traumatized
by Zehra’s clan members, as a result of which, she was forcefully contracted into the marriage as a
measure of compensation. Zehra, of course, takes it with a pinch of salt but finds her husband’s
attitude very reassuring, indeed. In time, the family’s progression takes its natural course and the
couple ends up blessed with three kids — Zainab being the youngest.

They live a peaceful life, entirely detached from the treachery of tribal customs and a
denigrating social environment. But the kids remain, by and large, uninformed of the matrimonial
origins of their parents, though Zainab does occasionally sense an element of dissonance in her
mother’s emotional ruminations. Her two elder brothers having already left Pakistan, her sense of
isolation would only intensify by observing her mother pensive at times. Then, one day, when she
must have been around sixteen, she finally picks up the courage to probe a little into her parents’
personal lives. Zehra does yield to her daughter’s insistence, recognizing her concessions to be in the
best interests of the family. The enigma being uncovered, Zainab does come to terms with the reality
but that event also marks a palpable change in her entire outlook to life. She becomes conscious of the
social injustice within the society she inhabits and resolves to make a personal contribution in its
tangible mitigation. How else would a sixteen-year old, morally upright girl respond to such a huge
emotional upheaval? Such compulsions, thus, provide the beginnings of a process of metamorphosis
and, effectively, the thematic underpinnings for all that follows in the plot. Nature, in the grand
scheme of things, creates an opportunity for one individual to challenge the social norms beyond the
bounds of honor.