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{{Infobox short story 
| name = Lihaaf
| image = 
| caption =
| author = [[Ismat Chughtai]]
| title_orig =
| translator =
| country = India
| language = [[Urdu]]
| series =
| genre = [[Short story]]
| published_in = ''Adab-i-Latif''
| publication_type = [[Literary journal]]
| publisher =
| media_type =
| pub_date = 1942
| english_pub_date =
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
| preceded_by_italics =
| followed_by_italics =
}}
"'''Lihaaf'''" ("The Quilt") is an Urdu short story written by [[Ismat Chughtai]] which was published in the Urdu literary journal ''Adab-i-Latif'' in 1942. In the coming decades, it was widely anthologised and faced an obscenity trial.<ref name="Gopal2012">{{cite book |author=Priyamvada Gopal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lf8wfOR1058C&pg=PT83 |title=Literary Radicalism in India: Gender, Nation and the Transition to Independence |date=2012 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-33253-3 |pages=65–88}}</ref> It is one of Chughtai's well known works.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rekhta Foundation |date=2023-12-01 |title=Ismat Chughtai |url=https://www.rekhta.org/authors/ismat-chughtai/all |access-date=2023-12-01 |website=rekhta}}</ref>

The story deals with suggestive [[lesbianism]], but also with the insulated and suffocating life of a neglected wife in a [[Indian feudalism|feudal society]] as well as [[sexual abuse]].

== Storyline ==

The story is told from the point of view of a small girl who is the niece of the protagonist, the beautiful Begum Jaan. Begum Jaan has had a very depressing life after marriage. Her husband, the Nawab, was much older than her and was thought to be extremely respectable for never having had any encounters with prostitutes. But it is soon revealed that it is because he is interested in boys. Begum Jaan starts to wither but is saved by Rabbu, her masseuse. Rabbu is a servant girl who is not so pretty but very skilled with her hands. She is constantly massaging Begum Jaan’s body in some way. When the narrator is left at Begum Jaan's place by her mother, she realises that despite her past admiration of love for Begum Jaan, there lie many secrets with her.

At night, shadows in the form of an elephant formed by the quilt of Begum Jaan leaves the narrator in fear. In the absence of Rabbu, Begum Jaan’s behaviour changes as she is irritated and sad. The stay at her aunt’s house leaves the narrator traumatised when Begum Jaan not only sexually abuses her in Rabbu’s absence but also when she turns on the light one night as the quilt is shaking and ends up seeing something she didn’t want to see. It is never revealed what that is as the story ends abruptly.

All this sheds light on the relationship between the two women which is hinted at throughout the story but never explicitly confirmed.

== Reception ==
The publication of "Lihaaf" ("The Quilt") led to much controversy, uproar and an obscenity trial, where Ismat had to defend herself in the [[Lahore High Court|Lahore Court.]] She was asked to apologize and refused, winning the case after her lawyer said that the story makes no suggestion to a sexual act, and prosecution witnesses could not point out any obscene words: the story is merely suggestive and told from perspective of a small girl.<ref name="Gopal2012" /> Years later, she mentioned in detail the court trial in her memoir, ''Kaghazi Hai Pairahan'' (A Life in Words: Memoir).<ref>{{cite web |author=Arunima Mazumdar |date=Jan 30, 2014 |title=Ismat Chughtai, a 'woman' above all |url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/books/Ismat-Chughtai-a-woman-above-all/articleshow/13164671.cms |accessdate=2023-12-01 |work=The Times of India}}</ref>

The short story became a landmark for its early depiction of sex, at the time, a taboo in modern [[Indian literature]], let alone Urdu literature.<ref name="Das1995">{{cite book |author=Sisir Kumar Das |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sqBjpV9OzcsC&pg=PA348 |title=History of Indian Literature: 1911-1956, struggle for freedom : triumph and tragedy |date=1 January 1995 |publisher=Sahitya Akademi |isbn=978-81-7201-798-9 |pages=348–}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Nilanjana S. Roy |date=24 February 2012 |title=Homosexuality in India: A Literary History |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/24/homosexuality-in-india-a-literary-history/ |archive-url= |access-date=2023-12-01 |website=The New York Times}}</ref>

==Film adaptations==
''[[Fire (1996 film)|Fire]], a'' 1996 Hindi film directed by [[Deepa Mehta]] and starring [[Shabana Azmi]] and [[Nandita Das]] was loosely based on the short story.<ref>{{cite book| last = Gopinath| first = Gayatri| title = Impossible Desires| year = 2005| publisher = Duke University press| location = Durham and London}}</ref> The short story was adapted to short film by the same name directed by Rohan Sonawane.<ref>{{cite web | title = Ismat chughtai's lihaaf |work= Dailymotion | url = http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x25tl61_ismat-chughtai-s-lihaaf_creation | accessdate = 2016-02-10 | first = Rabia | last = Mjst |date= 12 September 2014 }}</ref> ''Lihaaf: The Quilt'' is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language [[period drama]] film based on the story; directed by Rahat Kazmi, starring [[Anushka Sen]], [[Tannishtha Chatterjee]], [[Mir Sarwar]], [[Sonal Sehgal]], Shoib Nikash Shah, Namita Lal and [[Virendra Saxena]].<ref>{{cite news |title='Lihaaf' wins international acclaim with an award in US |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/lihaaf-wins-international-acclaim-with-an-award-in-us/articleshow/70920466.cms |access-date=21 April 2021 |work=The Times of India |date=31 August 2019 |language=en}}</ref> The film ''[[Dedh Ishqiya]]'' is loosely based on the story and references it in dialogue.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2014-01-16 |title=Why Dedh Ishqiya is aadhaa lesbian love |work=The Economic Times |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/et-commentary/why-dedh-ishqiya-is-aadhaa-lesbian-love/articleshow/28856869.cms?from=mdr |access-date=2023-07-16 |issn=0013-0389}}</ref>

==Bibliography==
* ''The Quilt and Other Stories'', New Delhi, Kali for Women, 1996.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.lehigh.edu/~amsp/2006/07/ismat-chughtais-short-stories.html Ismat Chughtai's Short Stories ]
* [http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00urdu/ismat/ Ismat Chughtai (1915-1991)]

[[Category:Indian short stories]]
[[Category:1942 short stories]]
[[Category:Obscenity controversies in literature]]
[[Category:Indian short stories adapted into films]]
[[Category:LGBTQ literature in India]]
[[Category:Feminist short stories]]
[[Category:1940s LGBTQ literature]]
[[Category:Urdu-language novels]]

Lihaaf - Revision history

Muzic SP at 11:25, 19 December 2025