Coming Out: Analysing And Deconstructing The Socially Defined Heterosexuality And Queer Trauma In The Novel "The Carpet Weaver"

Abstract

"The Carpet Weaver," the debut work by Afghan gay novelist Nemat Sadat, investigates what it is like to be a "Kuni" (Gay) in Afghanistan, a country where gays are scorned, tormented, and even executed. The protagonist Kanishka Nurzada, a young middle-class man, has a major sexual identity problem but is unable to "come out of the closet" due to religious and societal restraints. The plot sets during the Saur revolution, the story depicts the truth of the Bacha Bazi ritual and how it is imposed upon individuals without their consent, leaving them permanently traumatised. The author has focused the novel's development on disclosing the protagonist's true identity to his family and society for them to accept him for who he is and who he wants to be. The study intends to investigate fundamentalists' repression of social norms as well as homosexuals' lifestyles in a binary society. It gives evidence for the deconstruction of the normative in fundamentalist-dominated communities and reveals the presence of non-fundamentalists pushed into heterosexual relationships. The novel depicts how difficult it is for gay people to live in Middle Eastern countries and how difficult it is for the LGBTQIA community to live in the modern world.