Gender Trauma in Sharon E. McKay’s Thunder Over Kandahar

Abstract

This research work explores how female body becomes a site of gender violence, exploitation and torture in patriarchal Afghan society and causes gender trauma in Sharon E. McKay's Thunder Over Kandahar. The female characters in the novel go through continuous violence sometimes by male relatives and sometimes by religious fundamentalists in the name of Islamic rules. Yasmine and Tamanna are two central figures of the novel. Among them Yasmine and her mother have to face assault by fundamentalists in the name of violation of Islamic rules since they have come from England to their homeland. The continuous attacks make tham traumatized. Likewise, Tamanna and her mother who are bread ownners of entire family have to go through domestic violence of her uncle which makes these two women traumatized. In this sense, female characters in the novel have been exploited, tortured and controlled by the patriarchal norms and values. In Afghan society, patriarchal Islamic law applied by Islamic fundamentalism, as a means of maintaining patriarchal power, exploits and tortures the females; controls and subordinates them. It gives the women gender trauma. In this way, this research depicts that female body becomes the site of violence and masculine power exercise in patriarchal society that causes gender trauma of women.