Narratives of (Dis)empowerment: A Study of Das Bibi Ki Kahani Sher Khan Researcher, Department of English, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi
I Islam has a very rich tradition of biographical writings. The scholars and historians of the early period of Islam were vigilant enough to preserve all the particulars of Prophet’s life and his teachings. Their goal was to preserve the sayings and life narratives of the Prophet’s companions, caliphs and all such who were supposedly the essential source of religious teachings. Muslim mystics themselves were also among the earliest to recount their visions and spiritual experiences in works such as al-Munqidh min al-dalal (Faith and Practice) by scholar and sufi mystic al-Ghazali (1058-1111), which is often compared to Augustine’s Confessions. Like other religions, Islam also has its share of life narratives and hagiographical works which were written with specific purpose of celebrating the life of exemplars of religious vocations. These life narratives were written with the hope that they could dispense religious models to the believers and transform the life of their readers. One such text is Das Bibi Ki Kahani (The Story of Ten Gentlewomen). Das Bibi Ki Kahani is a collection of narratives based on the life and acts of the ‘pious’ women in Islamic tradition. One can find these stories mainly in oral tradition of Muslim women. Of late translation of those can also be found in many languages like Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati etc. Muslim women read these life narratives as a private ritual within a domestic setup. But these life narratives help us to see how varied the implications of “domestic” could be. It might sound strange that although there is no specific name of author appended to
such texts; it is available in abundance and publishers show tremendous enthusiasm in publishing it. Das Bibi Ki Kahani is a compilation of life narratives of Islamic women who are generally either family members of Prophet Mohammad or related to the Islamic religious history. Generally, following names are counted in the list—Hazrat Maryam Sayedah, Shahzadi Hazrat Sayedah Taherah, Fatma Zohra, Hazrat Saira, Hazrat Asiya, Hazrat Hajra, Hazrat Zaynab, Hazrat Sugra, Hazrat Kubra, Janab Omme Kulsum, Hazrat Sakina etc. They are hailed by Muslims as the epitome of female heroism, patience and struggle—qualities which are contingent upon a seeker in the path of Islam. Das Bibi Ki Kahani has become a highly popular text for Muslims in Indian subcontinent. It has become so popular that someone uploaded it on video sharing websites like youtube etc.1 It is a collection of narratives of ‘miracles’ and ‘punishments’. Muslim women (mostly housewives) read it as an act of devotion and as a ritual of acknowledgment of boon which was granted to them after their vows or prayer. At various points it includes a ‘pious’ woman—Hazrat Fatma, the daughter of Prophet Mohammad or any other ‘pious’ Islamic woman—coming in the dreams of women who were in trouble. The ‘pious’ woman would ask that particular person to read Das Bibi Ki Kahani, request for mannat (vow), and make niyaz (offerings) in the form of ladoo (ball of sweetmeat) from wheat flour (in some case other types of confectionaries can also be used) and then give fatiha (first verse of the Qur’an, used by Muslims as an essential elements of ritual prayer). First the women establish nafl namaz2 followed by darood shareef.3 Then one lady reads while the others listen the life-story of
1
One can watch and download the video version of Das Bibi Ki Kahani from the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGjHdsSSqrg (Accessed on August 12, 2015) 2 Nafl Namaz is a type of optional Muslim salat (formal worship). As with sunnah salat, they are not considered obligatory but are thought to confer extra benefit on the person performing them. An example is the offering of prayers (du’a). 3 Darood Shareef or Salawat or aṣ-ṣalātuʿala -n-nabī, is an invocation which Muslims make by saying specific phrases to compliment the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
Sayedah Bibi Fatma, the daughter of Prophet Mohammad. Men usually consider all this to be a kind of feminine indulgence and keep themselves out of it. Menstruating women are also kept out of this as they are believed to be impure. It is the duty of a woman in the family to perform such religious rituals for the well-being of the whole family. Muslim women believe that reading and listening to the life-narratives of these ‘pious’ women will fulfil their wishes which are to get them out of worldly trouble and ensure Jannat (Paradise) for them in their after-life. On the other hand, if someone refuses to listen to the story or goes against its spirit, s/he will have to face the retribution and go through grave ordeal. This votive aspect of Das Bibi Ki Kahani is one of the reasons that Islamic clerics fervidly question its authenticity and brand it as banal “Kitsch”. This paper attempts to read Das Bibi Ki Kahani in order to understand the process of knowledge dissemination in Islam. It also attempts to raise several questions within the context of religious and devotional life-narratives: Are the biographical narratives like Das Bibi Ki Kahani a legitimate source of knowledge in Islamic tradition? What can be the motive behind writing such religious (auto) biographies of ‘pious’ women? Can we read Das Bibi Ki Kahani as a ‘folk knowledge’ source of comprehending Islam? What do these biographies tell us about the women’s situation in Islam? Is there any possibility of knowing Islam apart from the so called pure or legitimate sources like Qur’an and Hadith? II Islamic clerics do not validate any text except holy Qur’an (literally means "the recitation". Qur’an is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from Allah) and Hadith (sayings attributed to the Prophet) as the legitimate source of ‘knowing’ Islam. They repudiate the existence of the texts like Das Bibi Ki Kahani and censure their use as an alternative religious text. One can find many fatwas and online videos in which Islamic clerics
lambast such texts without giving any satisfactory explanation for their reprimand of such texts. There is a serious lack of argumentation in their fatwas4 (a ruling on a point of Islamic law given by a recognized authority) as they fail to point out the nature of their disagreements. These fatwas give the impression that Islam is intolerant towards all the cultural injunctions that might have crept into Islamic tradition during its interaction with other traditions. But the question is how the text like Das Bibi Ki Kahani came into Islamic tradition when mainstream Islamic scholarship was so much rigid against such cultural adulteration. The answer to this could be found in the historical fact that major religions have influenced each other across a long period of time. India is known for its diversity and religio-cultural plurality. N. K. Das in his essay “Cultural Diversity, Religious Syncretism and People of India: An Anthropological Interpretation” highlights how Islam and Hinduism have influenced each other. Das writes, Since the late medieval period India witnessed a creative synthesis of Hindu and Islamic civilizations and thus grew a composite tradition, a pluralistic synthesis of the Indo-Islamic tradition including inter-faith convergence. There are two interrelated dimensions of the Indo-Islamic tradition. On the one hand, it manifested itself in syncretistic traditions of music, art, literature and architecture, and on the other, it found expression in folklore, dress patterns, food habits, names and surnames. If we turn to rural landscape we discover the distribution of material traits at the regional level indicating a certain complementarities in that it is marked by both local differentiation and interpenetration. (Das n.page)
See, Shaikh, Fatima. “Das Bibiyon ki Kahani mein Khandan e Risalat ki Tauheen” by Mufti Muhammad Akmal Madani Sahib. Web. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvagjd7QNWA Accessed on 20.10.2015). Similar videos, TV channels clips can be found on https://www.youtube.com and other video sharing websites. 4
Islam after being introduced in India has gone through a process of “Indigenization” (Misra 5965) and “various immigrant groups which in the wake of Muslim conquest settled in India imbibed the local mores and tradition.” (Momin 242) Moreover, the humane approach of Muslim mystics played a significant role in the “indigenization process” as they were of the view that “Islam should be presented to the Indian people in their own cultural idiom.” (Momin 242). Similarly, the medieval Indian Bhakti movement which emerged as the torch bearer of HinduMuslim cultural syncretism and the institutions like dargah (shrines) and Khanqahs (hospices) have assimilated into the domain of folk Islam various non-elite and primarily female elements. Trimingham in his book The Sufi Orders in Islam (1971) observed that “Indian Islam seems to have been a holy-man Islam. These (Sufi) migrants in the Hindu environment acquired an aura of holiness, and it was this which attracted Indians to them, rather than formal Islam”. (22) There are historical instances where we find that common people particularly non-Muslims used to visit Sufi saints in order to seek blessings and supervisions in their religious and spiritual lives. Scholars have suggested that these seekers also voluntarily transmitted Islamic knowledge and shared their religious beliefs and rituals with the Muslims. Consequently, there ensued many devotional and alternative religious narratives like Das Bibi Ki Kahani as the Cartesian product of cultural syncretism. So these texts are “not merely a context in which communication of the sacred take place” but also are “powerful transformer of one’s life” (Wadley 147). In his essay “Ek tha Raja, Ek thi Rani: Patriarchy, Religion and Gender in Religious Kathas”, Jasbeer Jain corroborates the occurrence of devotional narratives—revelatory, bow, boon, didactic, life narratives and other hagiographical, religious or spiritual texts. She points out in the same essay: It is true that in every religion (or almost every religion) there is an overt or a covert acknowledgement of boons being granted in exchange for an
act of devotion, abdication of some privilege or abstinence from some indulgence but the popularity of gods and goddesses may shift according to the dominant wave of the moment, and the revival of a cult can be located in social needs or political ideologies or even commercial interests. (Jain 100) It seems that narratives like Das Bibi Ki Kahani is an offshoot of the Indo-Islamic tradition of devotional and religious narratives like Kathas—Puranas Pravachan, Charit Katha, Vrat kathas and other folk traditions. Katha is a household event of religious storytelling, whose performances are a ritual event in Hinduism. These stories (Kathas) are didactic in nature and are used to instill moralistic values through the revelation of the consequences of human action (Karma). Vrat Katha5 is a special genre which includes the literature based on a religious practice of carrying out certain obligations with a view to achieving divine blessing for fulfillment of one or several desires. The narrative structure of both Das Bibi Ki Kahani and Vrat Katha are quite similar. The narrative of both the texts seem to be intended to valorise the divine or spiritual power and aim at bettering one’s life. Both the texts are often performed to alleviate present misfortune. In his essay “Pilgrimage Sites and Indian Civilization,” Agehananda Bharati puts it aptly, “If I gain x or overcome y or accomplish z, I shall make a pilgrimage to [or read the life narrative of] A’; or, ‘Because I have not gained x, etc., I shall make a pilgrimage to [or read the life narrative of] A in order to gain it, for A is known to specialize in granting x’” (qtd. in Eaton 125).
The Sanskrit word ‘vrata’ denotes ‘religious vow’. It is one of the most widely used words in the Hindu religious and ritualistic literature. Derived from the verbal root ‘vrn’ (‘to choose’), it signifies a set of rules and discipline. Hence ‘Vrata’means performance of any ritual voluntarily over a particular period of time. The purpose is to propitiate a deity and secure from it what the vrati, the performer wants. This whole process, however, should be undertaken with a sankalpa or religious resolve, on an auspicious day and time fixed as per the dictates of the Hindu religious almanacs called panjika. 5
Most of the stories in Das Bibi Ki Kahani have similar narrative structure as that of the Vrat Katha. Das Bibi Ki Kahani has a frame-narrative or nested narrative structure. There is story within the story, for example the story of “Two Daughters” is knotted in the story of “The Jew” which is further entwined with the story of “The Goldsmith”, forming a chain of stories. The incipit of these life narratives immediately sets it in remote past and free it of its temporality and “places it within archetypal models” (Jain 94). For instance, the story of Janab Sayedah starts with the introductory phrase, Kisi sahar me ek sunar rahta tha (Once there was a goldsmith in a certain [Arab] city). The theme of all the stories are basically precatory. There subsists the genesis of fear as the vow grows out of situation of need [to get out of worldly trouble] and terror [of retribution if someone goes against its spirit]. What may one conclude from all this? Ostensibly, these narratives appear to be inoculated with the concealed motive of making the religious aspiration of women (to be ‘pious’) and fear (of being declared ‘impure’ or ‘disobedient’) yield the desired end. These life writings are, to use the words of Charles Hirschkind, “deliberative” and “disciplinary” interpretation of the life history of religious exemplars. Similarly life narratives like Das Bibi Ki Kahani might be a deliberate attempt to dehistoricize and consequently deprive Muslim female legends of their historical prominence. III Das Bibi Ki Kahani could also be a derivative of the contestation between the polemics of modernity project and nationalism. “Ambivalent attitudes about modernity in countries with a colonial heritage resulted in the production of mixed, often contradictory messages to women.” (Elsadda 41) As Partha Chatterjee argues in his book The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Post-Colonial Histories (1993) that anticolonial nationalism divided the world into two domains, “the material and the spiritual.” Where the latter domain is located in the home and
“woman is its representation.” (qtd. in Elsadda 41) Accordingly, Muslim women in India, like in many other societies, are assigned the role of custodians of tradition and “authentic culture”. Therefore, they are likely to get their social and religious enculturation in their family as the home is assumed to be a microcosm of the society and its successful regulation by an educated yet modest woman could fetch social prestige and personal acclaim. In most of the cases, they are supposed to go through the process of “Islamization” in their adolescence by committing themselves in acquiring the religious knowledge which essentially includes tilawat (recitation or reading) and adhering to religious practices like namaz (ritual prayers prescribed by Islam to be observed five times a day), roza (the ritual of keeping fast in Islam) etcetera. They are basically trained to aspire to be “pious” (à la Saba Mahmood), albeit the founding texts of Islam give more emphasis to deeni-ilm (religious knowledge), “where ilm (knowledge) is understood to be in a causal relationship with iman6 (faith)” (Lapidus, Ira 38-61). Therefore most of the women come to believe “that “submission” and “obedience” can manifest Islamic virtues,” (Mahmood 64) and “knowledge acquisition should not be carried out only as an individual initiative, but under the aegis of authorized representatives of the community, because it is in this frame that an “authentic” Islam can be transmitted and faith can be most effectively cultivated and fortified.” (Jouili and Amir-Moazami 634). These “pious subjects”, as termed by Saba Mahmood, give more importance to religious authorities as they are expected to hold taqwa (forbearance, fear and abstinence) and also exhibit “a certain submission to them [religious authorities] (which can be at times liberating but at other times also restricting) [sic]” (Jouili and Amir-Moazami 634). Possibly, it is because of such blind attribution to the religious authorities by Muslim women and the acceptance of clerical directives as a priori knowledge that they were pushed to the margin of Iman in Islamic theology denotes a believer’s faith in the metaphysical aspects of Islam. However, Iman is different from Faith in the sense that it should not be blind belief, and should be accompanied by reason. Its most simple definition is the belief in the six articles of faith, known as arkān al-īmān. 6
socio-religious discourse. The consequence was that narratives like Das Bibi Ki Kahani became a pedagogical tool in the hand of imposter religious authority figures and clerics. Readings of texts like Das Bibi Ki Kahani were surreptitiously enthused with the intention of ‘monitoring’ the Islamic process of knowledge dissemination in order to perhaps reach their desired goal of attaining socio-political and economic benefits; “policing” and legitimatizing their parochial motives. IV The political and social debate in our time has been fraught with the “Woman question”. Representation of Muslim women have been at the centre of contemporary political debates. “Attempts to define the parameters of “authentic culture” as represented by women have resulted in giving pride of place to female figures from Islamic past.” (Elsadda 37) Although Islamic tradition of tabaqat was quite inclusive and there are instances of many biographical writings in which women are mentioned considerably yet we find that ‘A’sha Bint Abi Bakr who was the wife of the prophet Muhammad and daughter of Abi Bakr, the first caliph, was not given due attention. She has been deliberately ignored by Islamic scholars, albeit Feminist scholars embraced her as their representative icon lately. Even non-authentic and non-pristine sources like Das Bibi Ki Kahani do not include the story of ‘A’sha Bint Abi Bakr. Can we take it as a mere incidence or is it a deliberate attempt to emasculate her strong historical and political position? Hoda Elsadda in her essay “Discourses on Women's Biographies and Cultural Identity: Twentieth-Century Representations of the Life of 'A'isha Bint Abi Bakr” (2001) investigates the political use of biographies of women and outlines how the biography of a Muslim woman becomes a site of conflict over definitions of identity. Her essay suggests some of the historical specifics which might be the reasons behind the expurgation of ‘A’isha from the good list of
religious exemplars who were normally used as the role-models in the process of “Islamization”. She writes: ‘A’isha Bint Abi Bakr was the wife of the prophet Muhammad and daughter of Abi Bakr, the first caliph. She was believed to be an authority on Hadith (sayings attributed to the Prophet) and a noted figure in Islamic history. In the fifth year of Hijra, She was accused of adultery in a famous incident known as al-ifk (an incident in which she was slandered and vindicated)….Although she lived in the “ideal age” in the Muslim imagination, her legacy has become the source of heated controversy. The written tradition on ‘A’isha is divided between the Sunni tradition and the Shi’i tradition. The Shi’i blame ‘A’isha, just as they blame Abi Bakr and Omar Ibn Al-Khattab, for opposing Ali’s (the prophet’s first cousin and fourth Rashid Caliph) claim to the caliphate (political succession) and also for taking part in the war against Ali. In this context, ‘A’isha is not an exemplary Muslim woman to be emulated by other women, unlike Fatma, the daughter of Muhammad and the wife of Ali. In the Sunni tradition, the legacy of ‘A’isha is more complex. She is the wife of the Prophet and is revered accordingly. However, her participation in the first battle between Muslims does not meet with the approval of some Arab historians because it violates their ideas about the role of women in society. For these historians, ‘A’isha was an exemplary figure as long as she abided by her role as wife, but they had reservations regarding her involvement in political strife. (Elsadda 42-43)
Accordingly, ‘A’isha came to be regarded as the representative of women who did not conform to either cultural stereotyping of Muslim women or remaining confined to the space of a home. She was an active member of her society and used her knowledge of tradition and Hadith as a political weapon to defend her interests. On the other hand, Fatma, the daughter of Muhammad and Khadiga (the first wife of Prophet Muhammad), is the icon of ‘purity’ and ‘virtue’. Although both ‘A’isha and Fatma were hailed as the role model of Muslim women yet Fatma’s position as a religious exemplar is relatively more elevated due to her more conformist conduct and distinguished ‘piousness’ than A’isha’s. Moreover, capturing the idea of ‘Abbas Mahmoud‘Aqad’s book Al-Siddiqa Bint Al-Siddi, Elsadda writes in her above mentioned essay that, “The only difference between ‘A’isha and other women is the respect she deserves as a wife of the Prophet, an honour she worked hard to nurture. Notwithstanding, she manifests all the failings of her sex and is prey to jealousy and feminine intrigue, which become the driving emotions directing all her actions and decisions…So long as ‘A’isha remained within the confines of her home, she was an exemplary figure, a model of virtue until she ventured into public space and interfered in politics.” (Elsadda 48) Does it not point toward the power of representation and polemics of constructing “authentic” cultural identity of Muslim women in order to form particular expectations and lifestyles? As already discussed that both Sunni and Shi’i tradition of Islam will not appreciate the idea of using the life narrative of ‘A’isha as the model of religious and ‘pious’ life. For the type of life ‘A’isha led, did not fit into their notion of model women. Shi’i will not use the life narrative of someone who stood against their reverend Ali, the heroic caliph. Similarly, Sunni’s also have their restriction regarding ‘A’isha who instead of remaining in her private sphere as a wife of the Prophet, ventured into the public and political sphere. Thus, we find that the absence of ‘A’isha’s name in life narratives like Das Bibi Ki Kahani which are
used as the folk source for “Islamization” could not be a coincidence but a calculated attempt to filter the Islamic tradition and culture. V Islamic scholars do not validate any text except holy Qur’an and Hadith as the legitimate source of Islamic knowledge. They reject any alternative source of ‘knowing’ and consider all nonpristine and ‘folk knowledge’ to be contaminative and precarious. But the question which arises is “why did Islamic scholars or the literalist movements like Salafism aim to purify Islam of all the contaminations which they believe have come into Islam after its interaction with other religious traditions?” The answer, probably, lies in swaggering and schismatic performance of Islamic scholarship which has failed to appreciate the plurality of interpretations inherent in the Islamic theology. Movements like Salafism, Wahhabism and the recent trends of ‘Saudiazation’ of Islam have led towards the “de-culturisation of Islamic society. Oliver Roy significantly argues, “Whether it is Taliban in Afghanistan forbidding kite-flying, animal fights or the destruction of historical sites by ISIS or destruction of the old city of Mecca by Saudi Wahabis, all signify the attempts of the de-culturation process.” (Mir n. page) Moreover, it is relevant here to understand the fact that the Qur’an was not sent down as a complete book in one revelation; rather, the revelation spanned over a period of twenty-three years. It was revealed to support Prophet Muhammad who was faced with many questions, whether by Muslims or non-Muslims. Prophet Muhammad used these revelations for legislation and formulating rules to direct the social, economic, and political life of Muslims. Therefore, it is essential to know the context and circumstances in which the āyah (verses) were revealed; otherwise, its teachings could be misunderstood. Qur’an subsists only in the language in which it was revealed—Arabic. However, the translation of the meaning of the Qur’an is available in
many languages. But then again, Islamic scholars have different perspectives on the structure of Qur’anic text. First, there is the view that “Qur’anic text is a bundle of discrete verses placed together incoherently. Secondly, the Qur’an is a thematically coherent structure wherein all the elements are integrally related to each other to shape the whole text as a unity. (Afaki 1) Whatsoever one may conclude from it but it seems quite evident that the Qur’anic text is “a minefield of ambiguity, allowing people to cherry-pick its equivocal and often contradictory verses to back their argument.” (Suroor, n.page) Hasan Suroor further points out the limitations and vulnerability of the second most authentic source of Islamic knowledge—Hadith—and says, It is easy to manipulate Hadith (a compilation of Prophet Mohamad’s sayings and teachings), another major source of legitimacy for Islamic acts. This is because they are too numerous, were pronounced in vastly different situations and compiled many years after his [Prophet Mohammad’s] death with the result that their precise meaning was frequently lost in translation. Sometimes they are quoted outside the original context. They are routinely plucked out of context to support bizarre claims. Then there is the problem of “inauthentic” Hadith— sayings attributed to the Prophet which he may or may not have uttered. Even many authentic Hadith have been found to be flawed because of misinterpretation or contextual errors. (Suroor n.page) Consequently, we find Islamic scholarship suspended in webs of significance and common Muslims left confused and exasperated by the horde of bewilderingly different interpretations. The beauty of Islam lies in this fact, as it makes it ‘inclusive’ and ‘polyphonic’. Islam emerged by deconstructing the set notions like—authoritarianism, hegemony et al. Clifford Geertz in his
book The Interpretation of Cultures (1973), describes how Islam succeeded in adapting to different contexts and blended with folk customs and practices. Although there have been a constant attempt to develop a normative paradigm of Islamic faith and eradicate the multiplicity and differences inherent in its core yet we find that openness of interpretation and plurality of sources of Islam have always punctured the idea of having a single authority [read: Saudiazation]. “I believe that there is no such thing as a pure Islam” says Professor Machasin, Dean of the postgraduate faculty at the State Institute for Islamic Studies (IAIN) in Yogyakarta, “No matter who reads the Koran [Qur’an], their background and their culture will influence their interpretation of it. I was born Javanese – that is, Hinduism and Buddhism and other traditions have influenced me, although I was raised as a Santri. I see syncretism as something positive, as long as we deal with it rationally.” Thus, the narratives like Das Bibi Ki Kahani may outwardly seem to be an inappropriate way of knowing Islam but it cannot be denied that such narratives are the sources of folk knowledge. Beyond looking at Das Bibi Ki Kahani as a substance of ‘contamination’ and distorting pristine tradition, might we also look to it as a facet of the larger question of cultural assimilation—“a case of old and familiar constantly confronting and responding to the new and strange”? (Henige 412) Mary Poovey aptly argues in her book Uneven Developments: The Ideological Work of Gender in Mid-Victorian England (1988), If texts are parts of complex cultural economies…then no individual can originate meaning nor can he or she contain or foresee the effects the text will produce. If even the unconscious and language…are cultural constructs…[then] it is more important to look at the structure and deployment of signifying practices than their ‘originality’. (Poovey 19-20)
Could we read Das Bibi Ki Kahani as an alternative and folk attempt to fill the gaps which have arisen due to the supposed negligence of women in Islamic historicization? Texts like Das Bibi Ki Kahani generate a type of “discourse” which according to Michel Foucault “transmits and produces power; it reinforces…,” but to a significant extent, “also undermines and exposes it, renders it fragile and makes it possible to thwart” (Foucault 100-1). Foucault sees society as a site for the struggle to establish and pass on a regime of truth. He writes in his book Discipline and Punish (1991) that “to challenge power is not a matter of seeking some ‘absolute truth’ (which is in any case a socially produced power), but ‘of detaching the power of truth from the forms of hegemony, social, economic, and cultural, within which it operates at the present time’ (Foucault 75). Therefore, if one finds the narratives like Das Bibi Ki Kahani contaminative and inauthentic then the question arises, “why is not an authentic biography available in folk tradition of Islam in Indian subcontinent? Does it not point out toward the sexual politics of Islam which is supposedly patriarchal? The answer to these questions lie in the fact that despite being an unauthorized source of knowledge, Das Bibi Ki Kahani “potentially circumvent some of the pitfalls of homogenous representation of identity [of Muslim Women]” (Elsadda 40) Das Bibi Ki Kahani successfully stands against the patriarchal and parochial motive of religious supremacy in Indian subcontinent which supposedly holds an essentialist definition of Islam.
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Sher Khan Researcher, Department of English, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi—221005 Contact No. : +91-9616111526 Email:
[email protected] This Paper is already published. Please cite it as: Khan, Sher. “Narratives of (Dis)empowerment: A Study of Das Bibi Ki Kahani”, Life Writing and the Claims of Truth. eds. Dash, Abanikanta & Sher Khan. New Delhi: Authorspress, 2016. Print.
