Islam, Gender, and Identity in Leila Abouzeid's The Last Chapter : A Postcolonial Critique

Abstract

Within postcolonial criticism and cultural studies, understanding Moroccan literature sensitively requires attention to history and context. In her novel The Last Chapter , Leila Abouzeid positions herself within the context of Islam, modernity and Morocco's post-colonial politics. The novel was originally written in Arabic and then translated into English. This form of presentation has enabled Abouzeid to distance herself from the alleged Eurocentrism of the pioneering Francophone generation of educated Moroccans. Abouzeid illustrates the difficult lives of Moroccan women in post-independent Morocco. She also characterizes educated and religious men and their fragmented and inauthentic identities. The story of gender relationships unfolds, not insignificantly, within the context of both secularism and Islam in today's Morocco. The novel establishes a hierarchy of narrative voices to challenge the patriarchal ideology and to problematize individual and political identities. Her allegory exposes the failure of post-independent Morocco to emancipate women and to establish national independence, even though this post-independent patriarchal ideology has been touted as an authentic national and religious identity. The novel constructs a narrative based on women's struggles, men's crises of identity and Morocco's socio-political and religious upheaval.