Lihaaf

"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. It is one of Chughtai's well known works.

The story deals deals with suggestive lesbianism, but also with the insulated and suffocating life of a neglected wife in a 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 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. Years later, she mentioned in detail the court trial in her memoir, Kaghazi Hai Pairahan (A Life in Words: Memoir).

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.

Film adaptations
Fire, a 1996 Hindi film directed by Deepa Mehta and starring Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das was loosely based on the short story. The short story was adapted to short film by the same name directed by Rohan Sonawane. 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. The film Dedh Ishqiya is loosely based on the story and references it in dialogue.