The trope of home and the representation of Muslim women in Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain and in Attia Hosain's Sunlight on a Broken Column

The trope of home has received a perennial interest in both the writings of colonialist writers and in the works of those from colonised society. Whereas the colonialists are keen on expanding their “home” in foreign territories, the colonised remain culturally dislocated in their own homeland and e...

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Main Author:	Hasan, Md. Mahmudul
Other Authors:	Kidwai, A R
Format:	Book Chapter
Language:	English
Published:	A P H Publishing Corporation 2007
Subjects:	HQ1101 Women. Feminism PI Oriental languages and literatures
Online Access:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/13736/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/13736/1/trope_of_home_and_the_representation_of_muslim_women.pdf

id	iium-13736
recordtype	eprints
spelling	iium-137362014-08-22T04:40:56Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/13736/ The trope of home and the representation of Muslim women in Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain and in Attia Hosain's Sunlight on a Broken Column Hasan, Md. Mahmudul HQ1101 Women. Feminism PI Oriental languages and literatures The trope of home has received a perennial interest in both the writings of colonialist writers and in the works of those from colonised society. Whereas the colonialists are keen on expanding their “home” in foreign territories, the colonised remain culturally dislocated in their own homeland and engage in ideological debates to regain it. In the patriarchal discourse, women are relegated to the private world of home and family. In recent feminist theory, women, especially from subaltern societies, seek for a space to have a sense of belonging. The issue of multiple meanings of home and of multiple modes of homelessness finds symbolic representation in Rokeya’s feminist works and in Attia’s Sunlight on a Broken Column (1961). In the light of their treatment of the trope of home, this paper touches upon its re-readings in the feminist ideology of “being home and non-being home”(Martin & Mohanty, 1988, p.196). Occasional references are made to Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own (1929), which also deals with women’s longing for home and for belongingness. I propose to subvert the binarism of private and public, and of male and female associated with the received notion of the home. The homelessness of the colonised because of colonial dispossession, and women’s homeless condition because of their gender orientation constitute the central thesis of this paper. Whereas the gendered, domestic norms of izzat (honour) and sharum (modesty) restrict women’s independence and impede their individual fulfilment, colonial structures and education policy render the colonised culturally dislocated and spiritually homeless. In this regard, I endorse Sahgal’s (1993) assertion that “[…] migration can take place without even leaving one’s soil” (p.119). Even after the decolonisation, the legacy of the colonial cultural and education policy continues to culturally displace indigenous peoples. It has created an ambivalence among the colonised of adopting western value systems (especially “individualism”) and preserving their cultural rootedness. This difficult predicament is a palpable consequence of colonialism. A P H Publishing Corporation Kidwai, A R 2007 Book Chapter NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/13736/1/trope_of_home_and_the_representation_of_muslim_women.pdf Hasan, Md. Mahmudul (2007) The trope of home and the representation of Muslim women in Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain and in Attia Hosain's Sunlight on a Broken Column. In: Behind the Veil: Representation of Muslim Woman in Indian Writings in English 1950-2000. A P H Publishing Corporation, New Delhi, pp. 61-86. ISBN 81-313-0150-8
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	International Islamic University Malaysia
building	IIUM Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
topic	HQ1101 Women. Feminism PI Oriental languages and literatures
spellingShingle	HQ1101 Women. Feminism PI Oriental languages and literatures Hasan, Md. Mahmudul The trope of home and the representation of Muslim women in Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain and in Attia Hosain's Sunlight on a Broken Column
description	The trope of home has received a perennial interest in both the writings of colonialist writers and in the works of those from colonised society. Whereas the colonialists are keen on expanding their “home” in foreign territories, the colonised remain culturally dislocated in their own homeland and engage in ideological debates to regain it. In the patriarchal discourse, women are relegated to the private world of home and family. In recent feminist theory, women, especially from subaltern societies, seek for a space to have a sense of belonging. The issue of multiple meanings of home and of multiple modes of homelessness finds symbolic representation in Rokeya’s feminist works and in Attia’s Sunlight on a Broken Column (1961). In the light of their treatment of the trope of home, this paper touches upon its re-readings in the feminist ideology of “being home and non-being home”(Martin & Mohanty, 1988, p.196). Occasional references are made to Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own (1929), which also deals with women’s longing for home and for belongingness. I propose to subvert the binarism of private and public, and of male and female associated with the received notion of the home. The homelessness of the colonised because of colonial dispossession, and women’s homeless condition because of their gender orientation constitute the central thesis of this paper. Whereas the gendered, domestic norms of izzat (honour) and sharum (modesty) restrict women’s independence and impede their individual fulfilment, colonial structures and education policy render the colonised culturally dislocated and spiritually homeless. In this regard, I endorse Sahgal’s (1993) assertion that “[…] migration can take place without even leaving one’s soil” (p.119). Even after the decolonisation, the legacy of the colonial cultural and education policy continues to culturally displace indigenous peoples. It has created an ambivalence among the colonised of adopting western value systems (especially “individualism”) and preserving their cultural rootedness. This difficult predicament is a palpable consequence of colonialism.
author2	Kidwai, A R
author_facet	Kidwai, A R Hasan, Md. Mahmudul
format	Book Chapter
author	Hasan, Md. Mahmudul
author_sort	Hasan, Md. Mahmudul
title	The trope of home and the representation of Muslim women in Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain and in Attia Hosain's Sunlight on a Broken Column
title_short	The trope of home and the representation of Muslim women in Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain and in Attia Hosain's Sunlight on a Broken Column
title_full	The trope of home and the representation of Muslim women in Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain and in Attia Hosain's Sunlight on a Broken Column
title_fullStr	The trope of home and the representation of Muslim women in Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain and in Attia Hosain's Sunlight on a Broken Column
title_full_unstemmed	The trope of home and the representation of Muslim women in Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain and in Attia Hosain's Sunlight on a Broken Column
title_sort	trope of home and the representation of muslim women in rokeya sakhawat hossain and in attia hosain's sunlight on a broken column
publisher	A P H Publishing Corporation
publishDate	2007
url	http://irep.iium.edu.my/13736/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/13736/1/trope_of_home_and_the_representation_of_muslim_women.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T20:22:53Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T20:22:53Z
_version_	1777408224698302464

The trope of home and the representation of Muslim women in Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain and in Attia Hosain's Sunlight on a Broken Column

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