The Scripted and Resistant Body: Cultural Control and Women’s Resistance in Jarrar and Abdullah’s Stories

This study discusses how women's bodies function not simply as symbols of oppression, but as a means of resistance against the negative stereotypes placed upon Muslim women. The study aims to reveal how women's bodies are used as spaces of oppression and empowerment by showing the ways Muslim women resist patriarchal and cultural oppression through their bodies. It employs Foucault's body politics theory to understand how power operates through regulation and control of women's bodies and their functions in society, Judith Butler’s gender performativity theory for understanding how gender identity is formed through repeated performative actions, rather than existing before them, and Kimberlé Crenshaw's Intersectionality theory to examine how multiple identities such as gender, race, social class, and religion shape women's experiences of discrimination in diverse cultures and periods. The results show that despite the various forms of injustice against women, such as the tradition of child sacrifice, arranged marriages, and molded bodies, women characters have their own ways of resisting. It demonstrates that the scripted body or social control over women can be viewed positively in terms of how women characters in these stories take control of their rights and bodies. To conclude, the implementation of body politics, gender performativity, and intersectionality theory helps enrich analysis and perspective in a deeper understanding of women's bodies and how women characters express their resistance.