Malahat Review editorial assistant Kyra Kristmanson talks with the Issue #209 contributor about identity, defiance, and trying to define dreams in her story, "Zubaida."

KK: There's a distinction between dreams—the realm of public and private, of male and female, of rich and poor—and the character of Gul mentions that rich men “create their own dream world” while poor men “carry [dreams] on their backs.” However, there also seems to be an interconnectedness between them. Women marry men, and keep their dreams at home; rich men’s dreams can be endangered by the masses. Am I sensing a significance here that weaves into the story throughout?

SR: You’re right! How Gul envisions and explains reality and dreams becomes the reason for Zubaida’s transformation. Gul’s ideas play a part in how the rest of the story unfolds. There’s a distinction—as you noted—in the dreams of various groups. Yet everyone feels they are at risk. No one is safe. There’s also a difference between Gul’s conception of dreams and the daydreaming for which Zubaida is censored by employers. Who is vulnerable and to what forces? Zubaida opens herself to new possibilities and ways of being. She makes choices that are opposed to the smooth running of the beauty parlor. Her body and freedom are threatened as a result. Political ideology and dreams go hand in hand. “I have a dream,” Martin Luther King said in perhaps the most famous speech of the last century. And while we try to define our dreams to others, to ourselves, and what they might mean for our children, someone is taking advantage of the longing they elicit—companies are selling them back to us as slogans.

Read the rest of Sehrish's interview on TMR's website.