Silence as Architecture: Gendered Governance and Domestic Space in Ismat Chughtai’s Lihaaf

This paper offers an original feminist cultural studies reading of Ismat Chughtai’s Lihaaf by reconceptualising silence not as repression, taboo, or narrative absence, but as a spatially produced form of power embedded within domestic architecture. Moving beyond dominant interpretations that foreground sexuality and transgression, the study introduces the concept of “silence as architecture” to demonstrate how household interiors such as the zenana, bedroom, thresholds, and the quilt itself function as regulatory structures that govern visibility, knowledge, and gendered behaviour without overt coercion. Drawing on feminist spatial theory, postcolonial feminism, and theories of silence and power, the paper positions Lihaaf as a theoretical site for analysing how patriarchal authority is sustained through everyday spatial arrangements rather than explicit prohibition. The novelty of the study lies in its interdisciplinary framework, which shifts critical attention from desire to infrastructure, and from symbolic transgression to material and spatial governance. Its relevance extends beyond literary studies to contemporary debates in gender studies, cultural studies, and feminist geography by illuminating how private domestic spaces continue to operate as political sites where inequality is normalised through silence, concealment, and controlled knowledge.