Hannah Shah’s The Imam’s Daughter: Critique of Patriarchy

Abstract

Hannah’s The Imam’s Daughter embodies the encouraging and enriching ideas for Muslim women’s struggle for emancipation from the horribly exploitative tendencies in patriarchal society. This thesis deals with exploitation, discrimination, humiliation, oppression, control and violence. The characters portrayed in the novel are symbolic and speak the voices of ruled and the ruler, in other words those of females and males respectively.Therefore, the study is done in the perspective of female.The female character Hannah Shah carries the narrator’s view and attitude towards women and rest of the male dominated society. The author has tried her best to represent the contemporary Muslim society and its barriers to the women in general. Hannah, the protagonist tries to break down the unjust and scary limits set by her orthodox and conservative family. Finally, she comes to the realization that freedom is there,where there is courage to do what one believes is right thing to do. Her determinism to liberate herself and self-assertion to fulfill her wishes and desires made her an independent human being.Leaving the house, changing the religion and choosing her life partner herself reflects her exceeding courage and endurance to be successful to represent herself as a role model in the then Muslim society.