Asian Research Thesis Index

Abstract

This qualitative-cum-descriptive piece of research aims at highlighting the popular conventions of (re)presentation with which women of Pakistani society have been portrayed and given voice to in the mainstream indigenous feminist discourse. Since fact and fiction both constitute the making of such conventions, therefore, the study focuses on the fictional and theoretical aspects of Pakistani women's identity and image in the contemporary feminist debate within Pakistan and seeks to see what brand of feminism is born out of it. The literary and imaginative conventions are critiqued side by side with the theoretical assumptions as espoused by indigenous feminism. What informs such analysis is a constant sense of inadequacy in terms of giving voice and representations to Pakistani women in matters of their identity and status. The insight drawn out of such analysis is the need to revise the perspectives and patterns with which to analyze and understand the position and image of Pakistani women as well as to incorporate and include multiple and diverse perspectives in order to appreciate and understand the complex yet lived realities of women in their peculiar socio-cultural milieu. Given the diversity and multiplicity of views and voices, the principal operating assumption of my work is to suggest patterns (of behavior and thought) which could "unify" and "include" rather than "alienate" and "exclude". My work attempts to see and seek the identity and image of Pakistani women to be reformulated and remolded by encompassing a wide range of women with their unique and shared perceptions about their own identity in particular and other women in general.

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