Sex in Urdu novel creates a storm

When Rehman Abbas included some steamy sex episodes in his debut novel, he had no idea how hot things were going to get. His novel, Nakhlist...

When Rehman Abbas included some steamy sex episodes in his debut novel, he had no idea how hot things were going to get. His novel, Nakhlistaan Ki Talaash (Search of an Oasis) — the story of a Muslim youth’s identity crisis in the aftermath of the 1992-93 riots — is now in the eye of a storm.

After the Urdu Times dubbed it fahash (obscene) and some Muslims objected to the book’s explicit scenes, Abbas lost his job as a teacher at Anjuman-e-Islam’s Allana English High School, near Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus.

‘‘Rehman is a qualified teacher, but our college management was under pressure. We had to ask him to go,’’ said Rehana Salamat, the junior college’s principal.

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Abbas, who studied Urdu literature at the University of Mumbai in the ’90s, blames the Urdu Times for creating a needless controversy. ‘‘I am being victimised for being bold and frank. The paper launched a campaign against me,’’ said the thirty-two-year-old.

In a report on July 16, the Urdu Times condemned Abbas, declaring his book obscene and ‘‘harmful to Muslim society’’. ‘‘He’s not the first, but we will have to stop it,’’ said Alam Naqvi, a senior editor at the Urdu Times. ‘‘I don’t have time to talk at length on it right now,’’ he said, and hung up.

Abbas’ novel would perhaps never have been noticed but for the efforts of his former teacher, Kaleem Zia. Zia, who teaches Urdu at Ismail Yusuf College, Jogeshwari, recommended the novel to his students. Scholars complained to Minister of State for Food and Civil Supplies Arif Naseem Khan, who took a delegation to Jay Dutt Shirsagar, then minister for higher education, to ask for an enquiry.

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