Demystifying Patriarchy: A Feminist Study of Shafak's Forty Rules of Love

Efforts to get free from oppression often result in gender-based violence. Patriarchy silences women through a range of assumptions and concepts. The present study investigates the role and condition of women in patriarchal systems using Lerner's theoretical underpinnings. To examine the patriarchal systems, the study has been carried out through textual analysis of Shafak's Forty Rules of Love, emphasizing various rituals and events that the author represents. The data of the text have been collected, analyzed, and interpreted through Close Reading. Three female characters, Desert Rose, Kerra, and Ella Robinstein, have been selected from the book and examined in light of societal issues of violence, prostitution, and family. The study finds that the female characters have been viewed as inanimate objects, and their needs are not considered. They are treated inhumanely when they express disdain for patriarchal ideas. It also identifies that patriarchal norms oppress, enslave, and marginalize them.