Exploring the Negative Impact of Traditional Rituals on Women of Sindh Regarding Shirley Jackson’s Short Story “The Lottery”

Abstract

Sindh is a multilingual and multicultural region in which a large number of populations from different religions, castes, and languages have also settled since an ancient era. Sindh is a rich province fraught with various huge cultures from distinct clans. Sindhi people are amiable and best known for their hospitality. On the other side, Sindhi society presents drawbacks to the victimization of women through their tradition. The paper aims to analyze the negative impact of tradition through which women are victimized in Sindh by giving reference of an American short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. This story presented certain traditional factors which are annually practiced, through which women are victimized. The research aims to relate those traditional factors to the Sindhi tradition. In the Lottery women’s voices are suppressed and they do not protest against them in the patriarchal society. Sindh also presents some traditional factors in which women are suppressed, and deprived of their basic rights. Tradition can be harmful and it can deteriorate someone’s life. Some regions particularly settled in rural areas of Sindh treated women as others and did not allow them to participate in any decision-making at home. Women are treated on a minority level. They are neglected and worst represented in patriarchal society due to tradition they are presented with a low status and less respectful in human society. These all occur through tradition because in rural areas women are forced to follow the limitation which is imposed by their ancestors. In addition, women are butchered owing to honour matter in the society. This study uses the method of close reading as a research tool.