This has happened because your fiction was translated from Kannada into English. What are your thoughts on the dominance of English in the literary world?

We cannot deny or forget that India was a colony of the British. And, today, English is understood everywhere in the world — except maybe a few places — because of the extensive reach of the British Empire. It is also true that, as a writer, being translated into English makes your work travel wider. My stories have been translated into Hindi, Malayalam, Punjabi, Urdu and Tamil earlier but these translations have reached small groups of people. The English translation will travel a lot more and break many boundaries.

In the story Be A Woman Once, Oh Lord, the narrator’s mother gives her some advice for a successful marriage. She says, “You should be obedient… he is God to you, you should do whatever he tells you to, you should serve him loyally.” As a feminist writer who has been writing about the oppression of women for such a long time, it must be frustrating to see that some things haven’t changed at all.

Yes, you are right. The oppression that women face is prevalent even today, and not just at work but in their own households. Even if women are educated and they earn for the family, there is an expectation that they have to be the most obedient persons in the family.

Also, in India, marriage does not take place between a man and a woman. It is between two families. A woman who gets married has to adopt so many new norms and regulations when she moves into her husband’s house. She has to serve his parents and all his family members.

What is even more frustrating is that this oppression is considered acceptable. Religion dictates the same. Sometimes, even the judiciary passes judgements that uphold patriarchy.

In the same story, the narrator talks about how her whole being is reduced to the identity of a wife. She says, “My body and my mind were not my own”. Recently, the Chhattisgarh High Court acquitted a man of marital rape charges, stating that sexual intercourse between a husband and wife cannot be called rape in the absence of consent because they are married. As a lawyer and a woman, how did you respond to that?

Yes, I read about that. It was horrible. Honestly, I was so shocked by the judgement. As a lawyer in the district court in Hassan, Karnataka, I take up civil and criminal cases, often cases connected to matrimonial issues. Because I am a woman, I can understand how much that lady would have suffered. I was surprised that activists who usually speak about women’s oppression have not taken up her cause but I also wonder how long we will keep suffering under patriarchy and protesting against daily injustices. Men should be sensitized.

In the story The Arabic Teacher and Gobi Manchuri, the narrator has been conditioned to believe that “the proper bringing-up of children” is a mother’s duty. How have your own experiences as a mother found their way into this story?

I have three daughters and one son. As a practising advocate, I have been busy earning for the family, so my husband hired a cook and a person to take care of the house. I was relieved of that burden. But I had to fulfil social responsibilities and attend functions. Training daughters for their life after marriage has also been mostly my responsibility. Even though they are well-educated, I had to make sure that they learnt Arabic and knew how to read the Quran and perform all religious obligations. In our society, there are consequences for neglecting motherly duties and I could not take any risks with my daughters’ lives.

In the story Heart Lamp, we meet a woman who is fed up of her life because she has to raise five children while her husband is having an extra-marital affair. When she asks why she is being blamed instead of him, she is told, “He is a man…there is no stain that will stick to him”. Why do we have different standards for men and women?

Even today, there are so many women who have to go from pillar to post to provide for their children while their husbands are having extra-marital affairs. Our society takes such behaviour lightly. The man is allowed to be in the marriage and also continue the affair. Have you ever heard of a woman who is allowed to do the same? No. She has to choose one man. Society is soft on men whether they are Muslim, Hindu or Christian men. Islam permits men to have a legally wedded second wife but oppression of women is not restricted to Islam.

In the translator’s note accompanying the book, Deepa Bhasthi writes, “It would be a disservice to reduce Banu’s work to her religious identity, for her stories transcend the confines of a faith and its cultural traditions.” What do you think of this?

As a child, when I used to read stories with Muslim characters, I used to often say, “Why have the represented him like this?” I failed to understand why Muslims have to be shown as either completely good or entirely bad. Having interacted with so many people in my life, I feel that all persons have positive and negative qualities. Yes, it is true that many of the situations, customs and events in my stories come from my experiences as a Muslim woman but there are many things about literature that are universal. Muslims are humans too. When they are pricked with a pin, they feel pain. When they eat sweets, they feel happy. What I mean is that I might write stories that are mainly about Muslim characters but readers of any background can connect with their thoughts and feelings, their joys and sorrows.

How would you describe your experience of working with Deepa Bhasthi?

Deepa’s translations of my stories are good, and I like her very much as a person. She has taken a lot of time to immerse herself in my work and understand the geographical, cultural and social context that I write from. She is a hard-working person, and is never satisfied until she gets the exact mood and emotion. Being unwilling to compromise on quality is something worth appreciating. She used to come and visit me in Hassan. We would discuss a lot. She would ask for clarifications, make revisions, and finalize after that.

She has captured the metaphors so beautifully. In the story Be a Woman Once, Oh Lord!, for instance, “roaring black-black clouds” are compared to “elephants in heat”. How did you come up with that striking and absolutely unforgettable image?

My feminism seeps into the language that I use. An elephant filled with sexual desire is uncontrollable, and is hell-bent on getting what it wants. Men can be like that sometimes. Also, a powerful image can often do the job that a long paragraph of description cannot.

You have received death threats for your writing, and there was even a fatwa asking you to stop writing forever. What gives you the courage to keep writing?

For two years, I could not write even a single word. I was very afraid, and this fear affected my health. My body started feeling itchy all over. Whenever I would scratch my skin, it would start bleeding. The doctor gave me ointments and lotions, which did not help at all. One of my friends took me to a psychiatrist, who helped me realize that the rejection and abuses I had got had affected me a lot. I had internalized those negative responses. I need strong willpower to come out of that. I had to cure myself, and words were healing for me.

I had to learn to write all over again. I had to practise like a baby in the first standard. I had so much self-doubt that I was stumbling even with my grammar. It was really hard to overcome but I persisted. At this stage of my life, I don’t want any unnecessary hassles that will drain me of my energy, so I have to censor myself a bit in my writing. I have undergone a bypass surgery for my heart, so I also need to take better care of my health. But I am not going to stop writing anytime soon. I am working on my autobiography and a short story collection.

Chintan Girish Modi is a Mumbai-based journalist who writes about books, art and culture. He can be reached @chintanwriting on Instagram and X.