Deterritorialized in the Homeland

Abstract This essay juxtaposes an English translation of the Urdu short story “Toba Tek Singh” (1955) and the Arabic film Al-Hudoud (The Borders, 1984). The texts’ fictional characterizations de-naturalize the construct of the “citizen” and critique relations between subjects and states, which this work analyzes through the lenses of gender relations in Al-Hudoud and gendered history in “Toba Tek Singh.” The article makes a connection between the plot of “Toba Tek Singh” and scholarship by feminist historians whose work discusses the exchange of abducted women between India and Pakistan during the Partition. The analysis of Al-Hudoud challenges the trend of reading the Bedouin woman character as secondary, emphasizing instead the way in which the film highlights the encounter between coevals within the pan-Arab homeland and thus depicts how mobility and belonging are gendered. This article contributes to scholarship on transnational literature.