The burden of representation

When Awais Khan’s In The Company Of Strangers came out in 2020, I couldn’t wait to support rising local authors. After all the Pakistani literary industry has been in the slumps for far too long, so any change was welcome. But as reviews started piling in, I came across more than a few comments claiming that the author was a misogynist and that his book was damaging towards women. The comments were based on a character’s misogynistic thought process around and description of the female characters in the book.