Women’s Exploitation and Feminism as Reflected in The Works of Mumtaz Shahnawaz’s The Heart Divided and Attia Hussain’s Sunlight on A Broken Column

Abstract

This study focuses on women’s exploitation, gender role and feminism as depicted in the works of Mumtaz Shahnawaz’s “The Heart Divided” and Attia Hussain’s “Sunlight on a Broken Column”. This study describes women’s marginalization, feudal exploitation as well as gender power during the partition process. To understand women’s situation, post-colonial theory is used to delineate women’s condition, status and position at that time. It is based on the super-structure of Spivak’s and Mohanty’s approach towards Post-colonial Feminism. Textual analysis tools are used to interpret the marginalized status and position of women portrayed in the above-mentioned works. Indeed, this study is an effort to interpret feudal exploitation and gender agency during British Raj in Indian subcontinent.