Representation of Women in Postcolonial Literature in Pakistan

Abstract

This article attempts to explores, investigate and analyzes the postcolonial Urdu writings on the Pakistani women‟s participation in the socio-economic, religious and political arena. Urdu literature is spread all over the subcontinent and there are no borders in literature that can split it into two. This article would like to discuss literature mainly produced by Pakistani writers. However, while arguing that most literature has been written from a patriarchal viewpoint throughout the history, two main themes dominated the postcolonial literature firstly, role of women in the patriarchal society and other, the trauma of migration and its impact on the Muslim women in Pakistan. Islamic influence enforced purdah on Muslim women and purdahless women were regarded as infidel and shameless in literature. Nineteenth century Muslim writers advocated modern education for women not with the idea of emancipation but with a view to creating the modern wife, sister and mother. In this context, we can see that Allama Rashid-ulKhairi's modernist writings which were apparently sympathetic to women, were in fact meant to strengthen existing gender arrangements. The Progressive Writers‟ Movement brought about some change in the representation of women and the family, for example, Sajjad Haider Yaldram, Azeem Baig Chughtai and Ismat Chughtai depicted the negative side of the patriarchal society in which women were being exploited. The horror and trauma of partition enabled writers like Saadat Hasan Manto to highlight contradictions within the apparently monolithic institution of the family. Aziz Ahmad and Qurat-ul-Ain Haider also poignantly painted the picture of disintegrated lives and the anguish of exile. This article also demonstrates that male domination is consolidated through binary constructions of good women and bad women in society. This has been a continuation of nineteenth century notions of Muslim womanhood most clearly portrayed in Deputy Nazeer Ahmad's novel Mirat-ul-Uroos. The article will encompass the representation of women in Urdu literature during post-independence Pakistan. The influence of patriarchal mindset of the society on literature will also be discussed