HONOUR, IDENTITY, AND ALIENATION IN FADIA FAQIR’S MY NAME IS SALMA (2007)

This article analyses the relationship between communal identity and honour killings in Fadia Faqir's My Name is Salma through Edward Said's humanist critique. The novel's protagonist, Salma, experiences a deep conflict between individual freedoms and a sense of social belonging. Salma's migration to the United Kingdom symbolises her escape from social norms that foresee her death and her rejection of those norms. However, her exclusion in the new individualistic society and the lack of a sense of belonging lead to her inability to adapt to life in the UK. Salma’s sense of identity is deeply tied to her past and the society in which she grew up, and therefore the individualistic freedoms offered by society cannot resolve her issues. This study revisits My Name is Salma in the context of immigration, interpreting honour killings through the lens of individual and communal identity conflict. For Salma, the individualistic society is not something to be desired, as it leads to a fragmented sense of identity. What she truly desires is to regain her communal identity and feel whole again. The article presents a new perspective on the destructive effects of honour culture and the complex intersection of individual and communal identities. Moreover, it demonstrates that the need to belong to a community can lead individuals to maintain their ties to that community despite violent social norms, such as killing or being killed for honour.