Emergence of Women as Vehicles of Change in Selected Works of Tehmina Durrani, Taslima Nasrin and Shashi Deshpande

Abstract: Works of Tehmina Durrani, Taslima Nasrin and Shashi Deshpande reflect the place of Women in the Post – Colonial period, the contribution of women to stand up to the repressive Cultural set-up and to alter the social milieu by their progressive efforts to find their rightful place in society. Societies portrayed in Tehmina’s My Feudal Lord and Blasphemy, Deshpande’s That Long Silence and The Binding Vine and Nasrin’s Lajja, prescribe traditional and well – defined roles for women. All the said novels peep into the societal forces responsible for the marginalization of women in South Asian societies. Deshpande focuses on the lives of middle class Indian women striving to negotiate with a highly repressive patriarchal society. Tehmina concerns herself with the miserable conditions of upper class women in a repressive Muslim set-up which treats women like slaves and violence against women is a way of life. Nasrin’s Lajja speaks of the dehumanization of women in a society hijacked and manipulated by Muslim fanatics. Whatever the scenario, all the three women novelists agree that women are the worst sufferers. The paper makes an attempt to decipher whether women in the said works evolve and reconstruct themselves vis-à-vis the challenges they encounter in finding their just place in the patriarchal set-up that is almost similar in South Asian societies. The texts reflect that women ultimately come to the realization that they just deteriorate and erase their identity in accommodating and adhering to the unjust demands and expectations of their spouses and the family. Marriage, considered to be a sacred institution, spells doom for women. They find themselves trapped, suffocated, degraded and dehumanized. Then they rebel, stand up and take on the forces that are hell bent upon exploiting them and decimating their personalities as human beings. Keywords: Patriarchy, Dehumanization, Repression, Marginalization, Internalization. Title: Emergence of Women as Vehicles of Change in Selected Works of Tehmina Durrani, Taslima Nasrin and Shashi Deshpande Author: Dr. Rakesh Kumar International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online) Vol. 13, Issue 2, April 2025 - June 2025 Page No: 266-269 Research Publish Journals Website: www.researchpublish.com Published Date: 15-May-2025 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15423912 Paper Download Link (Source) https://www.researchpublish.com/papers/emergence-of-women-as-vehicles-of-change-in-selected-works-of-tehmina-durrani-taslima-nasrin-and-shashi-deshpande