Postfeminist and Islamic Feminist Discourse: An Analysis of Discursive Practices of Muslim Feminists

Abstract

Thesis Title: Postfeminist and Islamic Feminist Discourse: An Analysis of Discursive Practices of Muslim Feminists

New feminist initiatives with indigenous instruments to combat challenges faced by women are emerging from different geographical locations to suit their local socio-cultural environment. One such instance is Islamic feminism where Muslim women are reclaiming their rights through Islam and Quran and in effect liberating Islam and Muslim women from patriarchy. Postfeminism like other non-essentialist movements is an amorphous phenomenon; there is no fixed definition of it. Postfeminist agenda revolves around challenging victimization, favouring autonomy and inculcating responsibility. Based on liberal humanism, it is very adaptive concept that accommodates myriad versions of women’s movements. This study is postfeminist framing of Muslim women’s fiction, specifically, women from Pakistan and Arab world. The objective of the study is to investigate discursive patterns that emerge from creative constructions of Muslim women as protagonists in Chick-lit. It proposes the concept Islamic postfeminism, which is a merger of secular and religious sensibilities without betraying any of the respective traditions. Owing to complex web of affiliations and influences, Islamic postfeminism is a nexus of Islamic feminism, post-colonial feminism and post-structuralist feminism. In addition to theoretically situating this merger, this study examines the ways that re-orient Muslim womanhood as it appears in contemporary anglophone writings of young Muslim women, hence recontextualizing postfeminism in Muslim contexts. There is no single, homogeneous, explicitly traceable Islamic feminism or postfeminism in literary discourse of Muslim women. Rather we observe a fluid, free-spirited, juvenile, version of postfeminism that is simultaneously bold and impressive in its manifestations. These postfeminist Muslim writers are shedding the burdens of affiliations and expectations of Muslimness and are producing characters that do not necessarily wish to foreground their religious self as a form of identity. They are living their lives to the full, without being fearful of being tagged as good or bad Muslim. This contemporary phase in feminism marks generational difference and evolutionary nature of the concept.