A Bangladeshi Muslim Woman Wearing a Sari and Ice-Skating in London in Monica Ali’s Brick Lane

Abstract

Monica Ali’s immigrant family saga, Brick Lane (2003) has been praised as an important novel about Muslims in Britain and has been a huge success for a realist narrative with a postcolonial story. Ali’s diasporic narrative poignantly capsizes the prevailing images of Muslims in the contemporary world and switches the plot from London to Dhaka to narrate the stories of Bangladeshi sisters, Nazneen and Hasina. In terms of Muslim diaspora genre, this paper explores Brick Lane which portrays Bangladeshi immigrants and the second generation in an East End community in London, where after 9/11, Islamophobia much aggravates racism and marginalization of ethnic minorities. Also, the transforming process of the subaltern Muslim sisters from 1967 to 2003 is discussed. Nazneen in the East End immigrant community transforms herself into a self-willed independent worker in London; likewise, Hasina becomes a battered wife, a factory worker, a prostitute, and a housemaid but keeps fighting for her own happiness against a patriarchal society in Dhaka. Ultimately, both Muslim women come to develop political consciousness, sexual awareness, and a sense of belonging in their own ways.