Reconstruction of Nationalist Self in Benazir Bhutto’s Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West

Abstract

The main aim of this thesis is to analyze how Benazir Bhutto reconstructs the nationalist self in her autobiography and how her private self becomes the public self. Islam is quite misinterpreted by some political leaders. From the west Bhutto is the representative of Pakistan and Muslim culture and her autobiography helps to reconstruct the Muslim identity. In doing so, this research takes the theoretical concepts of autoethnography basically focusing on the idea of Carolyn Ellis, Dr. Reed Danahay and Goldschmidt. The paper concludes that people have wrong impression about Islam so that it creates terrorism in Pakistan and it is considered to be a religion of violence rather than the religion of democracy. People have failed to grasp its actual spirit. In this context, Benazir Bhutto tries to defend Islam because Pakistani identity lies with the Islam and also it inherits the democratic values by itself.

Keywords: Auto/ethnography, Identity, Islam, Democracy, Dictatorship, Extremism, Quran