Summary
The narrator begins the next section describing the circumstances of Iskander's arrest at the capital. Raza leads a coup and takes power. He arrests Arjumand and sends her to live with Rani in Mohenjo. Haroun evades arrest initially, though he and Iskander are accused of murdering Mir Harappa, Iskander's son. Shortly after, Good News commits suicide, as she has become pregnant and cannot bear the thought of enduring yet another bout of childbirth.
Iskander is held in confinement in a small, dirty chamber that grows increasingly disgusting with the passage of time. Sufiya's condition continues to worsen as the beast seems to take her over more and more. Omar becomes afraid of her agitated state. He manages to sedate her during a particularly violent episode. However, later, he discovers that she has escaped the carefully locked room he made for her and is now on the loose. Iskander is sentenced to death in court.
In the twelfth chapter, the narrator discusses the French revolution and states that he believes the two sides of history are virtue and vice. Raza Hyder holds power and Omar grows old and retires. Raza increasingly depends on the council of Maulana Dawood, one of his top advisors. With Maulana's encouragement, Raza begins to implement increasingly stringent laws that conform to his religious beliefs. He bans alcohol and requires women to dress with extreme modesty.
Raza has a dream about Sufiya and begins to believe that she will return to him. This thought concerns him. She is sighted in various villages all over the country and described in frightening, mythological terms. It is said that her body is entirely white, marked by scratches from trees and her hands. Her face is said to be matted with hair.
Four years pass and Raza remains president. Sufiya's brutal killings of people and animals continue, growing more frequent. She gets closer and closer to the capital with each one. Raza begins to watch as his regime crumbles. Maulana disappears while Haroun begins to rally a rebel militia to go after Raza. Haroun is captured on an aircraft, but Raza is not able to enjoy the news as he is anxious about Sufiya's whereabouts. Omar and Raza become increasingly certain that Sufiya is coming to exact revenge on them. An angry crowd surrounds the walls of Raza's compound, waiting for Sufiya's arrival. Raza narrowly escapes, disguised with a veil made by Bilquìs. Sufiya does not appear.
Together, Omar, Raza, and Bilquìs flee to Q. and travel to Nishapur. They arrive and are greeted by Omar's mothers. Omar develops a serious and frightening fever, during which he experiences intense dreams. His mothers visit him in his room and tell him a disturbing story about one of their ancestors who told his brother that his wife was having an affair, which led him to commit suicide.
Omar's mothers tell him that he has been disrespectful to the memory of his brother by befriending his murderer, Raza. Raza discovers later that Bilquìs has died in her chambers. Then he is confronted by Omar's mothers, who tell him he must die for killing their son. They put him in their dumbwaiter and use it to stab him to death. They disappear after this. Sufiya arrives at Nishapur. She transfixes Omar with her gaze and then rips his head from his body, killing him. Then the house explodes, killing Sufiya.
Analysis
The theme of dictatorship plays an important role in this final section of the novel. Like Iskander, Raza is able to seize power, but struggles to wield it effectively. He is swayed by the advice of Maulana Dawood and enacts a number of restrictive laws that he has mixed feelings about. He later comes under increasing pressure, as Sufiya seems to be closing in on him. In this way, the novel explores how internal tensions ultimately tear apart Raza's government. He becomes too reliant on Maulana and is left in a bad position after his departure. Similarly, his fear of Sufiya eventually makes it impossible for him to govern. Like Iskander, he is boxed in by the problems he faces at home, within his family and close circle.
Shame appears as a major theme in this part of the novel when the narrator lays out his theory of his history. He recounts the story of the French revolutionaries Danton and Robespierre. He notes that eventually Robespierre had Danton killed and that people supported this because they viewed Danton as overly indulgent, frequently seeing him enjoying expensive food. He notes that history almost always breaks down into puritans and epicures, or people who believe in moderation and people who seek out pleasure. He uses this to frame this story, as the novel's two central figures, Omar and Sufiya, represent these two elements: shamelessness and shame. This is a key moment in the novel in that it shows that the narrator, and likely Rushdie, believes shame to be the engine of almost all historical conflict.
The theme of women's oppression also appears in this last section. The narrator depicts one group of women who stand in contrast to almost all others in the book: the Shakil sisters, mothers of Omar and Babar. They never marry and have children out of wedlock. They keep each other's confidence and rely on almost no one else. No man is ever able to exert influence on them or mistreat them. They remain happy and healthy for many years and mourn the loss of Babar together. In his portrayal of these sisters, the narrator offers a potential means of escape from the sexist social norms in the book, showing how they have made their own world outside of these rules.
Loyalty is another significant theme in this section. Raza is killed near the end of the book. The Shakil sisters take revenge for the murder of their son Babar, killing him with their dumbwaiter. What this moment reveals is how fiercely devoted the sisters remain to the memory of their son, so much so that they are able to murder one of the most vicious and powerful men in their country. This moment not only shows Raza's reversal of fortune, as his reign ends with him being violently killed in a humiliating manner, but also highlights the sense of familial loyalty that the sisters hold to. Unlike Raza, they maintain a strong bond and are able to band together as a result.
The novel concludes with Sufiya killing Omar before being killed, herself, in an explosion. By this point in the novel, Sufiya is the full embodiment of shame. She has transformed into a panther-like creature and roams the countryside, killing animals and committing murders. The beast within her is so nourished with the shame around her that it has completely taken her over. In contrast, Omar represents shamelessness, as he has led a selfish and self-interested life. In this way, in this violent conclusion, her shame and his shamelessness cancel each other out, as Sufiya destroys Omar before being destroyed herself. The narrator, without saying it outright, seems to suggest that moderation is important. The events of the novel show how the characters not processing shame is dangerous but their leading a hedonistic life also causes a great deal of harm. In having both characters die at the end, Rushdie suggests that both extremes are damaging.
