Female Authenticity in the Holy Woman by Qaisra Shahraz

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to discover a new identity for women. This study aims to examine a specific text permeated by a consciousness of the general cultural suppression and exploitation in societies and cultures where patriarchy subordinates' women prescribing images and roles for them and the consequent resistance and regeneration on the part of women. The researcher selected Qaisra Shahraz's The Holy Woman, which shows the subjugation of women in twenty-first-century Pakistan. This qualitative study makes an analysis of the female protagonist in the light of existentialism's concept of authenticity and records how she resists, fights, and challenges exploitation and social prescription of her identity with the result that she re-emerges spiritually and establishes her existential rights as a free and independent human being. As exemplified through this text, the resistance and mobilization against these dominant patriarchal ideologies endow the female protagonist with regeneration and spiritual uplift. Through the discussion of the exploited but spiritually heightened character, the study concludes with a new image and identity for women, exploring possibilities to break away from social prescription.