The Quilt of Silence: Enforced Heteronormativity, Emotional Deprivation, and the Human Cost of Repression in Ismat Chughtai’s Lihaaf

Abstract

Ishmat chughtai’s 1942 short story Lihaaf (the quilt) has been celebrated and strongly debated for its natural depiction of alternative female desires. However, traditional literature works often treat female sexual intimacy as an isolated phenomenon, separate from the wide framework of domestic household. This paper uses a Queer cultural studies lens to argue that the structural tragedy of Lihaaf begins with enforced heteronormativity, specifically through the hidden gay identity of Nawab Sabib. Trapped by the patriarchal norms that demand a veneer of heterosexual marriage, Nawab Sahib hides his true self, drawing an innocent lady Begum Jan into a fraudulent marital union. This paper maps the domestic domino effect transferred by this concealment: the resulting emotional and physical starvation in the disrupted mind of Begum Jan’s psychology, mutating her from a neglected victim into an abusive person who seeks sex and intimacy from a child narrator. This study concludes that the ultimate crisis in Lihaaf is not non-normative sexuality, but the social hypocrisy that requires its concealment. By examining this cycle of trauma, the paper advocates for a progressive cultural framework where individuals are free to live openly and authentically, ensuring that no one is forced to sacrifice another person’s safety or their own identity for rigid social expectations.