Trimti: Siraiki Feminism and the Role of Women within Siraiki Literary Domain

Nukhbah Taj Langah,Muhammad Abudllah

doi:10.46521/pjws.026.01.0019

Nukhbah Taj Langah, Muhammad Abudllah

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.46521/pjws.026.01.0019

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Abstract

This paper applies textual analysis and an ethnographic approach to explore the role of women within the Siraiki cultural and literary domain. The debate about Siraiki as an ethno linguistic identity is a postcolonial development in Pakistan. Siraiki language speakers identify themselves being distinct from any other ethnic group in Pakistan. Based on this claim they resist the hegemonic control of Punjabi-Mohajir over their resources, area and disregard towards their literary and cultural tradition. The demand for a new Siraiki province within the federation of Pakistan by bifurcating Punjab is an outcome of this lack of political recognition. We contend that due to social taboos and patriarchal pressures, these women are experiencing suppression that results in limited visibility within mainstream literary circles. The lack of both appreciation and mentorship for their creative outputs has resulted in the dearth of literature produced by Siraiki women writers. The objective of this study is to indicate how this oppression can result in an enactment of power through creative writing. In order to substantiate our argument, we rely on selected works by Iqbal Bano, Shabnam Awan and Mussarat Kalanchvi. In the process, we also attempt to theorize an indigenous manifestation of feminist intent of these Siraiki writers as Trimti

Highlights

Unlike female Pakistani writers who produce literature in Urdu, Sindhi or regional languages, the visibility of female Siraiki writers (Banuk Tue Roohi, Banuk Rasheeda Mengal, Banuk Naz Malik Mengal, Ubaida Qayum, Bushra Qayum, Zakia Sardar Khan, Shaheen Roohi Bukhari, Bibi Taj Bano) remains limited, within the regional literary domain, and beyond their local boundaries
Through literary examples by Siraiki women writers, we argue that literature produced with the same level of consciousness, have different key identity markers and cultural discourse as compared to that by other Pakistani writers, due to the Siraiki struggle for identity
Indigenous feminism strengthens ties with the land and community that women belong to, not presenting and promoting anything that they cannot associate with. This localized version of the feminist cause in the context of Siraiki women, who we identify as Trimti,2 is approached a by an uprightness towards affection for the lives of Siraiki women

Summary

Introduction

Unlike female Pakistani writers who produce literature in Urdu, Sindhi or regional languages, (such as writing in Urdu by Attiya Dawood, Amer Sindhu, Noorul Huda Shah, Mariam Majadi, Azra Jabeen Memon, Fehmida Riaz, Azra Abbas), the visibility of female Siraiki writers (Banuk Tue Roohi, Banuk Rasheeda Mengal, Banuk Naz Malik Mengal, Ubaida Qayum, Bushra Qayum, Zakia Sardar Khan, Shaheen Roohi Bukhari, Bibi Taj Bano) remains limited, within the regional literary domain, and beyond their local boundaries. We connect Oliver’s premise of inaccessibility of social space of articulation and Gamble’s notion of indigenous feminism in suggesting that Shabnam and many other female Siraiki writers experimenting with creative writing or aiming to establish themselves as creative writers are excluded from the mainstream literary circles because they are dominated by their male counterparts The impacts of this suppression are reflected in Shabnam’s poems, along with her response towards being othered ‘to create (her) own meaning, especially that of (her) own body and experiences’ (Oliver 2004 88). The poetic experience has served multiple objectives in her life by empowering her as a woman struggling to share her voice with her society, resisting the traditional norms of male dominated society, while reflecting her perseverance towards her mother language with the desire to promote it Speaking, her experience represents the seclusion of women within the Siraiki cultural space and literary circles in general. While Awan has used the poetic genre, which has made her expression convoluted, Kalanchvi has elaborately addressed issues which affect Siraiki women in general, and female writers in particular

Conclusion

End Notes