Social Disintegration and Women Suppression due to Religious Extremism in Nasrin's Lajja

Abstract

From the time immemorial women are marginalized by the male patriarchal society and symbolized as 'other' which is incorporated as a fiction in Lajja. Nasrin situates in the context of religious fanaticism that raised its ugly head in Bangladesh in the wake of the demolition of Babri Masjid in India in 1992. The novel also exhibits immense potential to be studied from a feminist perspective. The representation of the female characters, their treatment at the hands of Muslim and Hindu male fundamentalists at the level of family, society, religion and the fate female characters face are heart rending and hedious, patriarchal society has created a world where women are expected to fit themselves in this frame, where in every sense they are inferior to men and lose their personal identity. Women remain as mere object or property to men. The main problem of the study was why females have been so marginalized in Hindu and Muslim society. The study has concluded that women in these societies have been treated that way because of religion orthodoxy.