Open AccessThe Burden of the Female Body: An Islamic Feminist Reading of Qaisra Shahraz’s Typhoon
Author(s) -
Nausheen Ishaque
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
international journal of islamic thought/international journal of islamic thought
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.101
H-Index - 1
eISSN - 2289-6023
pISSN - 2232-1314
DOI - 10.24035/ijit.19.2021.198
Subject(s) - human sexuality , islam , gender studies , pride , masculinity , feminism , reading (process) , sociology , space (punctuation) , political science , history , law , philosophy , linguistics , archaeology
A sequel to The Holy Woman(2001), Typhoon(2003) is Qaisra Shahraz’s second novel. This paper analyses how Shahraz continues problematizing female sexuality and the politics attached to it, especially in rural Pakistan. It dilates upon the discourse that surrounds the female body and sexuality in Pakistan society within and outside the framework of marriage. What is at stake is that women’s own sexuality becomes a burden for them. On the contrary, men take pride in their masculinity which gives authenticity to their voice. The cultural colonization of women’s lives (as it appears in Shahraz’s novel) is addressed under the theoretical rationale of Islamic feminism. This is done with the aim to locate the space granted to women in Islam, especially when it comes to the female body and its sexuality.