Mapping the Trajectory of Indian Muslim Women’s Life-Writings: An Autoethnographical Approach

About the bookThrough diverse cultural contexts and temporalities, the contributions in this volume explore the role of life-writings in recording the narratives of women whose voices have been silenced, skewed and misinterpreted for several decades. By offering interdisciplinary insights, the volume illustrates how such autoethnographic narratives serve as critical and contested sites of rebellion and resistance. In conclusion, the volume aims to contribute to the ongoing endeavour of deciphering the position of Muslim women from a national perspective and envisioning pathways toward collective and holistic understanding of Muslim women’s literature.Through autoethnographic studies as well as close textual readings, the authors selected for this volume offer a set of essays that deeply engage with a range of Indian cultural context from various epochs, culminating in a significant and scholarly intervention that will hopefully contribute in a meaningful way to the discipline of Indian Muslim women’s literature. The book aims to promote future pedagogic possibilities in Muslim women’s writings in India, with its contributors being an organic mix of PhD scholars, professors, and early-career academics from various Indian universities.ChaptersForeword by Dr. Hywel DixIntroduction by N. Safrine01: Narrating Stories of Culture: An Autoethnographic Reading of Haris Qadeer’s the Silence That Speaks-Short Stories by Indian Muslim Women and Attia Hosain’s Distant Traveller by Ajas N.and Dr. T. Abdul Rahman02: Reclaiming The Zenana: Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain’s Life-Writings as Feminist Autoethnography by Divya D.03: Can Silence Be a Source in History? A Mizāj Pursi of The Forgotten Lives of Six Indian Muslim Historical Female Figurines by Kaushiki Ishwar04: Voices Behind the Veil: Mapping the Journey of Indian Muslim Women Through Literature and Autobiography by Nasreen Sultana K. A.05: Lives in The Shadows of Empire: Autoethnographic Perspectives on The Narratives of Jahanara Begum, Nur Jahan and Zeb-Un-Nissa by Preeti Sharma06: Lives in Fragments: Narrating Resistance and Identity in Life-Writings of Indian Muslim Women by Rijul Singh07: Rescued or Repressed? Muslim Women’s Displacement and Silencing in Partition Literature by Rubaiya Nasrin08: Muslim Women Negotiating Representation, Region, and Religion: Shamshad Hussain’s Autoethnographic Documentation of The Lives of Muslim Women In Malappuram, Kerala by Safwana Arayapurath09: Oppositional Gaze on Home and Domesticity in The Selected Fiction of Nazar Sajjad Hyder and ismat Chughtai by Malabi Ghosh10: Colonial Construction of Women’s Empowerment: (A)Historical Orientalisation of Awadh Begums by Sreemoyee Sarkar11: Living Life Through Writing: A Life in Words, Saeeda Bano’s Off the Beaten Track and Zarina Bhatty’s Purdah to Piccadilly by N. Safrine and Dr. S. Rasheeda Sulthana Read more