Later, in an interview, she said she hated the suffocation in the lives of her characters, and that being trapped in ideas of shame and honour was absurd. Similarly, around the same time, Ismat Chughtai, known as Urdu’s wicked woman,2 wrote about sexual experiences in verse with great candour.3 She was charged with obscenity and put on trial for her short story ‘Lihaaf ’ (‘The Quilt’) which had erotic and lesbian undertones. In her book The Novel of the Future (1947), Anais Nin wrote, ‘The writer’s task is to overthrow the taboos rather than accept them.’1 In her short stories, she never shied away from illuminating moments of sexuality, no matter how transgressive they were. Writers from all cultures have seen the breaking of silence as their main task. FICTION HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE PLACE WHERE ‘FORBIDDEN’ subjects are explored, and writers have dared to probe various aspects of sexuality, thereby offering readers a window into an understanding of the subject or an alternative perspective.
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