THE INVISIBLE AND SILENCED IN MUSLIM WOMEN’S MEMOIRS: AN INTERPRETIVE ANALYSIS

Abstract

This paper, drawing upon the theories of Saba Mahmood and Leila Abu Lughod, studies the portrayal of subjectivity and agency in two selected memoirs of Muslim women. The proliferation of Muslim women’s memoirs is deeply problematic; these are answering the demands of a vociferous audience who want to know the whole truth from an insider’s voice.  In texts written under these pressures, instead of a more ambivalent representation, the writers are wont to repeat the same platitudinous portrayals that have a chance to sell in the market. This paper argues that a Muslim woman’s subjectivity is unique and nuanced which cannot be translated through paradigms rooted in non-Muslim cultures and thus is not doing justice to the multifarious and equivocal identity of Muslim women.