February 21 2020

This week in class we read the article written by Jhumpa Lahiri called “The Treatment of Bibi Haldar”. In the story, the reader sees a victim immediately identified named Bibi. Throughout the story, it is evident that family and friends of Bibi consider her disabled/defective as a woman. The ultimate cause is not yet fully understood, but some probable reasons are 1) she is an unattractive woman 2) she has acne 3) she has eczema. However, society abuses her, tries to sell her, and makes strong efforts to put the burden of Bibi on a man. Bibi is described as being an uneducated woman because she does not know the social feminine norms of society. Similar to a story found at https://www.kearneyhub.com/news/local/family-members-accused-of-repeatedly-abusing-mentally-disabled-woman-in/article_e0e5a728-54bf-11ea-9fe4-132159914651.html. The article talks about a woman who was disabled, and is abused by her own family. Similar to Bibi, family members and close friends turned a blind eye on the situation, just like the mentally disabled woman from the article. Both stories are showing close people of the victim becoming manipulative once they believe there is a reason. It is a sad truth in the world, you really can not trust anyone.