IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/adg/ijoisr/v1y2023i1p1-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring the Zenana: Ismat Chughtai and the Vision of Feminist Utopia

Author

Listed:
  • Alexandar Rufhi

    (Department of Sociology, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia)

  • Gomidhy Saroph

    (Department of Sociology, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia)

Abstract

The conventional interpretation of a zenana often symbolizes male dominance over women. However, Ismat Chughtai's work, particularly her story "Lihaaf," challenges this prevailing notion and offers a different perspective. Chughtai seeks to disrupt the association of a zenana with male control and aims to provide it with a transformed meaning. While conventional views perceive a zenana as a space designed to isolate women from the outside world, Chughtai, in "Lihaaf," employs it as a microcosm that represents her own reality. This paper aims to demonstrate how Chughtai subverts the gendered nature of this space and establishes a feminist utopia within it. It explores the notion that patriarchy's inherent disparities unintentionally create opportunities for agency and generate spaces for a feminist utopia to emerge.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexandar Rufhi & Gomidhy Saroph, 2023. "Exploring the Zenana: Ismat Chughtai and the Vision of Feminist Utopia," International Journal of Innovative Scientific Research, World BIOLOGICA, vol. 1(1), pages 1-4.
    • Handle: RePEc:adg:ijoisr:v:1:y:2023:i:1:p:1-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ijisr.net/ijisr/article/view/2
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ijisr.net/ijisr/article/view/2/1
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:adg:ijoisr:v:1:y:2023:i:1:p:1-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: World BIOLOGICA (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://ijisr.net/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.