Let’s
talk about Fareeda aka Mummy, of the “Mummy, yeh aap kya keh rahi hain” fame.
When she orchestrates her evil plan against Khirad, she feels that what she’s
doing is necessary. She has no guilt over her actions, she feels that it was essential
to get Khirad out of her house by any means necessary. The constant use of
words such as “gandagi” “ghalaazat”
etc signify that she sees Khirad as an impurity that entered her family and it
is her duty to purify her house by removing her.
With this we can analyze two
things. The first one is that Fareeda believes in her truth narrative. What she
has done is completely justified in her mind and therefore she is not in the
wrong. Secondly, the existence of social hierarchies and the necessity to
ensure that they are not disrupted. Baseerat, when he nikaahofied Khirad and
Ashar, disregarded Fareeda’s power for a girl who has a far lower social
standing than Fareeda. Other characters such as Sara, Sara’s mother and Khizar,
all had their own separate reasons for taking part in Fareeda’s plan but the
only motive for Fareeda was that she needed to ensure order is restored and
Khirad knows her place.
This can be compared to Mrs. Norris and Sir Thomas Bertram’s
discussion in the first chapter of Mansfield Park about ensuring that the
Bertram girls must always remember their superiority to Fanny Price and Fanny
should never forget her place in the Bertram household.
"There
will be some difficulty in our way, Mrs. Norris," observed Sir Thomas,
"as to the distinction
proper to be made between the girls as they grow up: how to preserve in the
minds of
my daughters the consciousness of what they are, without making them
think too lowly of their
cousin; and how, without depressing her spirits too far, to make her remember
that she is not
a Miss Bertram. I should wish to see them very good friends, and would, on
no account, authorise
in my girls the smallest degree of arrogance towards their relation; but still
they cannot
be equals. Their rank, fortune, rights, and expectations will always be
different. It is a point
of great delicacy, and you must assist us in our endeavors to choose exactly
the right line of
conduct."
Moreover,
the constant reminders given by Mrs. Norris to Fanny can be closely linked to
Fareeda’s actions. Ultimately, it's all about the preservation of social hierarchies.
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