Marginalization of Women by Salman Ahmed Rushdie

Salman Ahmed Rushdie is an eminent postcolonial diasporic writer of Indian origin. He was born in a Muslim family in 1947, the year India became free from the clutches of the colonial rule. The novelist and essayist of international repute, Rushdie, started his writing with the fictional work Grimus (1975). His second novel Midnights’ Children (1981) won the Booker’s Prize. The text focuses on the simultaneous independence and partition of the two nations. He came into thick of controversies because of his novel, The Satanic Verses. (1988). The Muslims considered the novel to be blasphemous. The publication of the novel led to a wide range of demonstrations and protests worldwide. The publication of the text became dearer for him as the Muslim religious leader of Iran issued a fatwa. The fatwa meant that the man who takes away the life of Rushdie would get one billion dollars as a reward. As such, he continues to live under threat to his life till today. Rushdie’s fame as a novelist is immense. More than seven hundred journal articles and numerous book chapters have been published on it. In the text Shame, Rushdie gives his account of societal and political life in Pakistan. He is satirical of the social conditions in the country which are the resultant of undemocratic, dictatorial and unlawful political practices of the leaders of Pakistan. The present paper attempts to analyze the issue of marginalization of women in the patriarchal society of Pakistan. Rushdie tries to highlight the denial of rights to the Pakistani masses, especially the women, by the rulers. Rushdie portrays the gloomy picture of the Pakistani society in which the women have to face acute sufferings and oppression and suppression has become the talk of the...

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...dignity and allowed to enjoy rights at par with men. Given the opportunity to work, the women with their intellect and energy can surely work wonders for the nation and the society.

Works Cited

Ahmad, Aijaz. In Theory, Classes, Nations, Literatures. London: Verso, 1992. Print.

Mittapali, Rajeshwar and Kuortti, Jeol Salman Rushdie New Critical Insights. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, 2003.

Parmeswaran, Uma. Salman Rushdie’s Early Fiction Rawat Publications New Delhi, 2007.

Rushdie, Salman. Shame London: Vintage, 1995.

Ray Mohit K and Kundu, Rama eds. Salman Rushdie Critical Essays. New Delhi: Atlantic, 2006.

INTERNET SOURCES

Deszcz Justyna “Rushdie’s Attempt at a Feminist Fairytale Reconfiguration” FolkloreVol.115, No.1 (April2004):2744(http://www.jstor.org/stable/30035141) Accessed on 05/10/2012)