Halal Fiction and Female Agency

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Contemporary Muslim writing, both in the US and in England, is witnessing the emergence of woman-centered fiction that puts Islam front and center. "Halal fiction," coined by Farial Ghazoul to refer to a new mode of writing advocating a theologically-conceived and ideologically-established worldview, has been used to describe the works penned by Leila Aboulela ( The Translator and Minaret ) and Umm Zakiyyah ( If I Should Speak trilogy). Both writers have drawn praise from certain segments of the Muslim population, and attracted a robust readership. However, the critical reception of these works remains divided: a group of scholars celebrate the subversive politics of halal fiction that presents Islam as a source of empowerment for women while others express reservations about the way halal fiction validates a skewed image of the Muslim woman aligned with patriarchal norms of gender identity. This paper focuses on the thematic, critical, and aesthetic challenges of halal fiction. It argues that rather than affirming individual agency as a significant component of self-actualization, halal fiction appears to endorse a type of womanhood based on consensual subordination, and voluntary withdrawal from the world. Furthermore, halal fiction reveals a divergence in the utilization of the novel itself, largely because of that genre's strong association with secularism and dialogism. This all suggests that there is a visible discrepancy between the alleged politics of the work (Islam as a redeeming code of ethics) and its effective politics of representation (Islam as a limiting and even authoritarian ideology).