Elham Fatma is currently working as an Assistant Professor (Term) of English in the School of Humanities & Social Sciences at the Thapar Institute of Technology & Engineering, Patiala, Punjab, India. She obtained her PhD in April 2021 from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, titled “Paradise and Pain: Women & Trauma in Select Contemporary Kashmiri Fictions.” She was an Assistant Professor/Guest Faculty (English) at the Department of English, Aligarh Muslim University, India. In the same department, she completed her M.A. in English and was awarded a gold medal. She received a Fulbright Scholarship to study at Davis & Elkins College in Elkins, West Virginia, USA, at the undergraduate level. Her publications comprise articles and chapters on various aspects of trauma studies that have been produced by Routledge and are now being reviewed. She is a copyeditor for the Journal of Postcolonial Text. She has given research presentations at some of the world’s prestigious universities, including Cambridge, Oxford, Hamburg, Birmingham, and the University of California, Riverside.
This article argues that expressions of postmemory-a form of relationship that a generation has w... more This article argues that expressions of postmemory-a form of relationship that a generation has with its antecedants, as proposed by Marianne Hirsch-are writ large in the descendants of the Kashmiri Pandits who fled from the Kashmir Valley in the 1990s and before then. Through a close reading of two novels by Kashmiri writers, Siddhartha Gigoo's The Garden of Solitude and Rajat Mitra's The Infidel Next Door, this article analyses the prevalence of guilt, curiosity and the yearning to (re)connect with a lost home that is evident amongst subsequent generations in relation to their parents' and grandparents' forced migration from Kashmir. We demonstrate that the idea of postmemory provides a useful framework for understanding the feelings of simultaneous attachment to and generational distance from the past.
Anglophone literature by writers of the Pakistani diaspora grapples with multi-layered themes tha... more Anglophone literature by writers of the Pakistani diaspora grapples with multi-layered themes that are narrated through complex plots that explore the challenges of belonging in a new land in which identity is always in question by the dominant citizenry. Such intertwined themes include race, gender, sexuality, estrangement, covetousness in relationships, identity crises, and ambivalent feelings towards origin and nationality as inflected by postcolonial migration and resettlement. These thematic aspects of identity and alienation as experienced by the Pakistani diaspora are perhaps best crystallized in the notion of “home.” “Home” signifies contradictory feelings of belongingness, affiliation, and inclusiveness; it also paradoxically symbolizes sensitive relations to exclusion, borders, and containment. In this context of “home,” the millennial generation of Pakistani diasporas who are growing up and/ or attaining education in the West encounter “borders” with respect to familial beliefs, dogma, and ideals couched in religious and cultural terms. This generation’s prerogative to pursue or disregard its parents’ cultural legacies, especially with regard to the selection of a spouse, weddings, marital celebration and expectations, surfaces in diasporic literature as a bone of contention with family members of another generation. Our contribution encourages readers to stretch their imaginings of “home” beyond the Partition of the Indian subcontinent and explore Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali Zamindar’s notion of “the long partition” in the context of postcolonial emigration from Pakistan and where, how, and why it impacts the institution of marriage. We focus on three novels: Bapsi Sidhwa’s American Brat (1993), Nadeem Aslam’s “Maps for Lost Lovers” (2004), and Azhar Abidi in “Twilight” (2008). These works of fiction feature protagonists living in the USA, Australia, and England, respectively, yet share a common thread: they fictively document the strife produced between family members as a result of clashing cultures. As a byproduct of contemporary society, diasporic Pakistani millennials living away from home experience an ever-widening gap between it and the preceding generation. We explore the conscious exercise of choice in personal matters with a focus on matrimony. For these subjects, marriage is influenced by exposure to Western society coupled with emotional dissociation and territorial alienation from the ethnic land of their ancestors. The thrust of our contribution asserts that Pakistani diasporic literature reveals the fraught contradictions of home between the older generation which regards the home as a sanctum of family life and the millennial generation which has a much more open view of marriage (and divorce) in how and why it configures the conjugal home and kinship in and beyond Pakistan.
Despite the evident rise in the cases of infidelity amongst working couples in India, adultery of... more Despite the evident rise in the cases of infidelity amongst working couples in India, adultery of women is not an equal opportunity endeavor for them. This essay in light of select short stories by contemporary Indian women writers on transgressions and conjugal relationships examines factors that are responsible for working married couples’ commemorative infidelity and trauma caused by spouses’ betrayal. While against the changing social and cultural norms, this essay discusses society’s prejudiced views on male promiscuity and intolerance towards female infidelity.
Asian literary and cultural texts that engage with trauma, memory, and healing, provide insights ... more Asian literary and cultural texts that engage with trauma, memory, and healing, provide insights into the social and cultural history of the region, through the customs and traditions prevalent there. These texts force us to confront violence against women, like honor killings (Karo Kari), exchange marriages (vani), and forced marriages. One such type of traumatic experiences occurs where some young women of coastal Pakistan engage in marriage to the Quran. In some feudal families of the Sind province in Pakistan, there is a tradition of getting their daughters married to the Quran, with the intention that she should read the Quran and devote her life to it and should never marry anyone. This is the rule of patriarchal society to keep property in the family and prevent a woman from claiming the rights to property. In her novel The Holy Woman, Qaisera Shahraz offers the feel and taste of native culture with insight into the lives of the Muslim women of Sind province, and the trauma they must endure when they are decreed to be Quran brides and thus married to it. In this essay, we argue that Shahraz resists the marriage of Muslim daughters to the Quran through the female protagonist Zarri Bano. We read the Quran as a work of literature that contradicts this marriage practice, and which also reconfigures the gendered labor attached to wifehood and this practice. In this essay, we critically read the narrative strategies used by Shahraz to resist the marriage of daughters to the Quran. We further argue that the author signals to readers that this practice is not only inhumane, but moreover contrary to the teachings of Islam despite widespread prejudice towards the religion. Specifically, Shahraz shapes Zarri into a figure that is an emblematic example of culturally specific honor and gender-related violence who resists this practice. In the line of her defiance, our contention is substantiated by close readings of verses from the Quran as a contradictory literary text which challenges, rather than reifies, the marriage of daughters to the Quran. In short, we demonstrate that the Quran is not in consensus with this practice. Rather, this tradition suppresses Muslim daughters in Sind by subjecting them to gendered labor formed by a feudal practice that presupposes neoliberal capitalism. We thus dispel myths that this tradition is aligned with religion, and instead show alliances to economic concerns married to Islamic patriarchy. In presenting a literary model of resistance to this practice in the character of Zarri, Shahraz’s challenges self-designed patriarchy, in the guise of Islam, through the emblematic protagonist and how, at the end of The Holy Woman, she is able to determine her own destiny.
This article argues that expressions of postmemory-a form of relationship that a generation has w... more This article argues that expressions of postmemory-a form of relationship that a generation has with its antecedants, as proposed by Marianne Hirsch-are writ large in the descendants of the Kashmiri Pandits who fled from the Kashmir Valley in the 1990s and before then. Through a close reading of two novels by Kashmiri writers, Siddhartha Gigoo's The Garden of Solitude and Rajat Mitra's The Infidel Next Door, this article analyses the prevalence of guilt, curiosity and the yearning to (re)connect with a lost home that is evident amongst subsequent generations in relation to their parents' and grandparents' forced migration from Kashmir. We demonstrate that the idea of postmemory provides a useful framework for understanding the feelings of simultaneous attachment to and generational distance from the past.
Anglophone literature by writers of the Pakistani diaspora grapples with multi-layered themes tha... more Anglophone literature by writers of the Pakistani diaspora grapples with multi-layered themes that are narrated through complex plots that explore the challenges of belonging in a new land in which identity is always in question by the dominant citizenry. Such intertwined themes include race, gender, sexuality, estrangement, covetousness in relationships, identity crises, and ambivalent feelings towards origin and nationality as inflected by postcolonial migration and resettlement. These thematic aspects of identity and alienation as experienced by the Pakistani diaspora are perhaps best crystallized in the notion of “home.” “Home” signifies contradictory feelings of belongingness, affiliation, and inclusiveness; it also paradoxically symbolizes sensitive relations to exclusion, borders, and containment. In this context of “home,” the millennial generation of Pakistani diasporas who are growing up and/ or attaining education in the West encounter “borders” with respect to familial beliefs, dogma, and ideals couched in religious and cultural terms. This generation’s prerogative to pursue or disregard its parents’ cultural legacies, especially with regard to the selection of a spouse, weddings, marital celebration and expectations, surfaces in diasporic literature as a bone of contention with family members of another generation. Our contribution encourages readers to stretch their imaginings of “home” beyond the Partition of the Indian subcontinent and explore Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali Zamindar’s notion of “the long partition” in the context of postcolonial emigration from Pakistan and where, how, and why it impacts the institution of marriage. We focus on three novels: Bapsi Sidhwa’s American Brat (1993), Nadeem Aslam’s “Maps for Lost Lovers” (2004), and Azhar Abidi in “Twilight” (2008). These works of fiction feature protagonists living in the USA, Australia, and England, respectively, yet share a common thread: they fictively document the strife produced between family members as a result of clashing cultures. As a byproduct of contemporary society, diasporic Pakistani millennials living away from home experience an ever-widening gap between it and the preceding generation. We explore the conscious exercise of choice in personal matters with a focus on matrimony. For these subjects, marriage is influenced by exposure to Western society coupled with emotional dissociation and territorial alienation from the ethnic land of their ancestors. The thrust of our contribution asserts that Pakistani diasporic literature reveals the fraught contradictions of home between the older generation which regards the home as a sanctum of family life and the millennial generation which has a much more open view of marriage (and divorce) in how and why it configures the conjugal home and kinship in and beyond Pakistan.
Despite the evident rise in the cases of infidelity amongst working couples in India, adultery of... more Despite the evident rise in the cases of infidelity amongst working couples in India, adultery of women is not an equal opportunity endeavor for them. This essay in light of select short stories by contemporary Indian women writers on transgressions and conjugal relationships examines factors that are responsible for working married couples’ commemorative infidelity and trauma caused by spouses’ betrayal. While against the changing social and cultural norms, this essay discusses society’s prejudiced views on male promiscuity and intolerance towards female infidelity.
Asian literary and cultural texts that engage with trauma, memory, and healing, provide insights ... more Asian literary and cultural texts that engage with trauma, memory, and healing, provide insights into the social and cultural history of the region, through the customs and traditions prevalent there. These texts force us to confront violence against women, like honor killings (Karo Kari), exchange marriages (vani), and forced marriages. One such type of traumatic experiences occurs where some young women of coastal Pakistan engage in marriage to the Quran. In some feudal families of the Sind province in Pakistan, there is a tradition of getting their daughters married to the Quran, with the intention that she should read the Quran and devote her life to it and should never marry anyone. This is the rule of patriarchal society to keep property in the family and prevent a woman from claiming the rights to property. In her novel The Holy Woman, Qaisera Shahraz offers the feel and taste of native culture with insight into the lives of the Muslim women of Sind province, and the trauma they must endure when they are decreed to be Quran brides and thus married to it. In this essay, we argue that Shahraz resists the marriage of Muslim daughters to the Quran through the female protagonist Zarri Bano. We read the Quran as a work of literature that contradicts this marriage practice, and which also reconfigures the gendered labor attached to wifehood and this practice. In this essay, we critically read the narrative strategies used by Shahraz to resist the marriage of daughters to the Quran. We further argue that the author signals to readers that this practice is not only inhumane, but moreover contrary to the teachings of Islam despite widespread prejudice towards the religion. Specifically, Shahraz shapes Zarri into a figure that is an emblematic example of culturally specific honor and gender-related violence who resists this practice. In the line of her defiance, our contention is substantiated by close readings of verses from the Quran as a contradictory literary text which challenges, rather than reifies, the marriage of daughters to the Quran. In short, we demonstrate that the Quran is not in consensus with this practice. Rather, this tradition suppresses Muslim daughters in Sind by subjecting them to gendered labor formed by a feudal practice that presupposes neoliberal capitalism. We thus dispel myths that this tradition is aligned with religion, and instead show alliances to economic concerns married to Islamic patriarchy. In presenting a literary model of resistance to this practice in the character of Zarri, Shahraz’s challenges self-designed patriarchy, in the guise of Islam, through the emblematic protagonist and how, at the end of The Holy Woman, she is able to determine her own destiny.
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Papers by Elham Fatma
Our contribution encourages readers to stretch their imaginings of “home” beyond the Partition of the Indian subcontinent and explore Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali Zamindar’s notion of “the long partition” in the context of postcolonial emigration from Pakistan and where, how, and why it impacts the institution of marriage. We focus on three novels: Bapsi Sidhwa’s American Brat (1993), Nadeem Aslam’s “Maps for Lost Lovers” (2004), and Azhar Abidi in “Twilight” (2008). These works of fiction feature protagonists living in the USA, Australia, and England, respectively, yet share a common thread: they fictively document the strife produced between family members as a result of clashing cultures. As a byproduct of contemporary society, diasporic Pakistani millennials living away from home experience an ever-widening gap between it and the preceding generation. We explore the conscious exercise of choice in personal matters with a focus on matrimony. For these subjects, marriage is influenced by exposure to Western society coupled with emotional dissociation and territorial alienation from the ethnic land of their
ancestors. The thrust of our contribution asserts that Pakistani diasporic literature reveals the fraught contradictions of home between the older generation which regards the home as a sanctum of family life and the millennial generation which has a much more open view of marriage (and divorce) in how and why it configures the conjugal home and kinship in and beyond Pakistan.
In this essay, we critically read the narrative strategies used by Shahraz to resist the marriage of daughters to the Quran. We further argue that the author signals to readers that this practice is not only inhumane, but moreover contrary to the teachings of Islam despite widespread prejudice towards the religion. Specifically, Shahraz shapes Zarri into a figure that is an emblematic example of culturally specific honor and gender-related violence who resists this practice. In the line of her defiance, our contention is substantiated by close readings of verses from the Quran as a contradictory literary text which challenges, rather than reifies, the marriage of daughters to the Quran. In short, we demonstrate that the Quran is not in consensus with this practice. Rather, this tradition suppresses Muslim daughters in Sind by subjecting them to gendered labor formed by a feudal practice that presupposes neoliberal capitalism. We thus dispel myths that this tradition is aligned with religion, and instead show alliances to economic concerns married to Islamic patriarchy. In presenting a literary model of resistance to this practice in the character of Zarri, Shahraz’s challenges self-designed patriarchy, in the guise of Islam, through the emblematic protagonist and how, at the end of The Holy Woman, she is able to determine her own destiny.
Our contribution encourages readers to stretch their imaginings of “home” beyond the Partition of the Indian subcontinent and explore Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali Zamindar’s notion of “the long partition” in the context of postcolonial emigration from Pakistan and where, how, and why it impacts the institution of marriage. We focus on three novels: Bapsi Sidhwa’s American Brat (1993), Nadeem Aslam’s “Maps for Lost Lovers” (2004), and Azhar Abidi in “Twilight” (2008). These works of fiction feature protagonists living in the USA, Australia, and England, respectively, yet share a common thread: they fictively document the strife produced between family members as a result of clashing cultures. As a byproduct of contemporary society, diasporic Pakistani millennials living away from home experience an ever-widening gap between it and the preceding generation. We explore the conscious exercise of choice in personal matters with a focus on matrimony. For these subjects, marriage is influenced by exposure to Western society coupled with emotional dissociation and territorial alienation from the ethnic land of their
ancestors. The thrust of our contribution asserts that Pakistani diasporic literature reveals the fraught contradictions of home between the older generation which regards the home as a sanctum of family life and the millennial generation which has a much more open view of marriage (and divorce) in how and why it configures the conjugal home and kinship in and beyond Pakistan.
In this essay, we critically read the narrative strategies used by Shahraz to resist the marriage of daughters to the Quran. We further argue that the author signals to readers that this practice is not only inhumane, but moreover contrary to the teachings of Islam despite widespread prejudice towards the religion. Specifically, Shahraz shapes Zarri into a figure that is an emblematic example of culturally specific honor and gender-related violence who resists this practice. In the line of her defiance, our contention is substantiated by close readings of verses from the Quran as a contradictory literary text which challenges, rather than reifies, the marriage of daughters to the Quran. In short, we demonstrate that the Quran is not in consensus with this practice. Rather, this tradition suppresses Muslim daughters in Sind by subjecting them to gendered labor formed by a feudal practice that presupposes neoliberal capitalism. We thus dispel myths that this tradition is aligned with religion, and instead show alliances to economic concerns married to Islamic patriarchy. In presenting a literary model of resistance to this practice in the character of Zarri, Shahraz’s challenges self-designed patriarchy, in the guise of Islam, through the emblematic protagonist and how, at the end of The Holy Woman, she is able to determine her own destiny.