The Condition of Women in Patriarchal and Postcolonial Contexts, A Sociocritical Analysis of Malika Mokeddem’s Forbidden Woman and The Sand Child

This research looks at Malika Mokeddem's The Forbidden Woman (1995) and Tahar Ben Jelloun's The Sand Child (1985) from a sociocritical point of view, focussing on how patriarchal and postcolonial frameworks affect women's identities and ability to act. Using qualitative interpretive methods based on feminist literary theory, postcolonial criticism, and intersectionality, the study looks at how personal stories connect with larger social and political realities in Algeria and Morocco after independence. Sultana in The Forbidden Woman stands up to repressive religious and cultural conventions, whereas Ahmed/Zahra in The Sand Child shows how brutal it is for women to lose their individuality when men demand that they have male lineage. Both books use several points of view, symbolic locations, and acts of transgression to show how hard women fight for their freedom. The results show that literature may be a strong way to fight against deep-seated gender norms and colonial legacies, allowing people to reclaim their identity and speak out.