SILENCED BODIES, SUPPRESSED VOICES: EXPLORING GENDERED TRAUMA AND CULTURAL TABOO IN MANTO’S KHOL DO

Abstract

This article discusses the idea of female injury and the cultural and social silence surrounding it in Saadat Hasan Manto’s story Khol Do. Set against the backdrop of the Partition of India, the story reflects the psychological and physical violence inflicted on women and criticizes the social, cultural, and patriarchal forces that suppress their voices. Through the character of Sakina, Manto reveals how women’s pain is often overlooked, reduced to physical survival without emotional acknowledgment. The story’s minimalist historical style, the absence of a female voice, and the emotionally charged final image highlight how trauma embedded in cultural norms and perpetuated through silence. Women portrayed primarily as bearers of family and communal honor. Drawing on the themes of injury and feminist literary criticism, this article analyzes how Khol Do exposes the failure of family, medicine, and society to recognize or respond to sexual violence. Manto’s narrative resists closure, forcing readers to confront the harsh realities of trauma. Within broader discussions of Partition literature and gender studies, the story underscores the urgent need to revisit historical and literary portrayals of violence against women and to break the long-standing cultural silence surrounding their suffering.