Booker Prize winner Banu Mushtaq: "There is always hope, because there is solidarity among women."

"Be a woman for once, oh Lord!" With this heartbreaking prayer, Indian author Banu Mushtaq concludes the twelve stories that won her the International Booker Prize , a journey through the underworld of women in her country that is at the same time a hymn to hope, as the author says.

"A writer should always have hope for a better society, because there is solidarity among women. It is not just theoretical, but is practiced every day in India," explains Mushtaq (1948) in an interview in London shortly after receiving the most prestigious award for literature translated into English.

Originally written in Kannada (an indigenous language of southern India) between 1990 and 2023 and selected by translator Deepa Bhashti, who shares the prize 50/50, the stories in Heart Lamp are moving in their rawness but also in their delicate nuances .

Her heroines are women caught between a rock and a hard place , crushed by a patriarchal society from which they can only escape with the help of a mother, a daughter, or a friend. Sometimes, only death awaits them at the end of their struggle.

"If a neighbor gives birth to a baby, another woman will go there, assist with the delivery, care for the newborn, and feed it. Even if no one else is there, not even her husband, she will take care of the mother and the baby," the writer assures.

Mushtaq has spent her entire life working as a lawyer and women's rights activist , drawing on many of the experiences she brings to paper.

This work, which allows her to be surrounded by people whom she studies in detail, has opened the door to cases like that of the man who provided all kinds of attention to his mother, while marginalizing the woman he had married, and who inspires one of the stories.

Although his stories were written over a quarter of a century , he believes they are as relevant now as they were then, "and the day after tomorrow, and a century from now, they will still be relevant."

She believes the "traps" used to control women are "difficult to identify" and often include the emotional bond between them and their children, used as blackmail to prevent them from leaving an abusive marriage.

"There's a very brutal practice in my area, where a woman is considered the honor of the family and must safeguard it even if it means her death, to preserve the dignity of the man and the family," she notes, alluding to one of the most chilling stories in the book.

Religion, like family, looms over all texts. Mushtaq, a Muslim, speaks of the Lord, not God, who "are not the same": "I have referred to the entire system as Lord, including politics, power, religion, patriarchy, and even domestic relations."

This manipulation of religious meaning is often perpetrated by those in charge of enforcing its precepts, according to their whims and will, he believes.

Heart Lamp also addresses the complicated coexistence in India between different faiths , although Mushtaq maintains that "harmonious relations prevail between Muslims, Hindus, Christians..."

The problem arises when politics sows discord to create division : "To the outsider, a scenario has been created in which Hindus and Muslims are always fighting each other, always shedding blood. But that is not the situation."

If the International Booker jury recognized the book, it was largely due to its beautiful prose , which captures much of the oral tradition passed from mother to daughter, and which has been impeccably translated by Deepa Bhasti in an innovative and radical way.

Each story uses its own language and even its own point of view, ranging from individual experience to collective vision, all seasoned with a healthy dose of dark humor and sarcasm.

Bhashti explains that she decided not to translate many of the Urdu or Arabic words that dotted the original, nor did she use italics, so as not to make them "exotic" and alienate the reader.

" We have to move away from the idea that we have to understand every word when we read a literary work (...) If we read literature from other countries, it's also because we want to learn something new," he reflects.

In the world of Heart Lamp, men are, almost without exception, despicable beings . However, the author includes only one acknowledgment in the book: to her husband, Mushtaq Mohiyudin.

Is there any hope for them then? "Yes!" the writer laughs. "And it's not easy to have a relationship with a woman (like me) with such strong ideas and her own opinions and tastes. Mushtaq has done it, congratulations. But he hates microphones, and now 50 cameras are chasing him after my award... "