Women Matter in Night of the Golden Butterfly

Tariq Ali's Night of the Golden Butterfly combines past and present times in its treatment of the theme of history with a visible feminine difference. The important women characters in the novel serve to indicate the shift of the narrative across historical times and also pass judgments on the monologic discourse of history of both past and contemporary socio-political spheres. The voice of Jindie, for example, represents alternative interruptions to historiography and a link between the past and present through woman's consciousness and feminine difference. The other voices comprise of the characters of Zaynab and Naughty Lateef. Besides them, the minor characters Anjum and Zarina also get a chance to be represented. The novel offers a space for the untold stories of these women characters. These versions are related with alternative versions of the feminine world with regards to women's oppression, stereotype images and ideological bashing at the hands of patriarchy.