Postcolonial Feminist Perspective Research Articles

Colonized Body Of Women In Ahmad Tohari’s Novel The Dancer

This study aims to analyze how the female body is colonized in Ahmad Tohari's novel "The Dancer." The novel portrays the lives of women in Javanese culture, shaped by colonialism and patriarchy, and illustrates how the female body becomes a site of domination, control, and exploitation. Utilizing a postcolonial feminist perspective, this research examines the experiences of physical, psychological, and social oppression faced by the female characters in the novel and their responses to various forms of colonization of their bodies. The findings reveal that through narrative and characterization, Ahmad Tohari explores the complexities of female identity influenced by colonial history and patriarchal structures. These findings highlight the importance of understanding the female body as a battleground between dominant forces and women's resistance against various forms of oppression. Thus, this study contributes to the broader discourse on gender and colonialism studies in Indonesian literature.

A Postcolonial Feminist Perspective on Traditional Birth Attendants and Management of Pregnancy Complications Among Indigenous Women in Rural Nigeria

The work of Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) in the Global South continues to be pivotal to the operations of rural healthcare services, especially as formal healthcare services often malfunction in rural communities, as in rural Nigeria, where TBAs preponderantly conduct deliveries among Indigenous women. This study examines TBAs’ management of delivery complications in rural Nigeria among Indigenous women using a sample of TBAs and TBAs’ service users. The study adopts a qualitative methodology involving focus groups of TBAs’ service users and interviews of TBAs to determine TBAs’ effectiveness in managing obstetric complications, considering their differentiation in terms of service competence. The study apprehends the phenomenon through a postcolonial feminist theoretical lens. The results show that TBAs have differential capabilities in the management of cases and their perception and interpretation of problems determined whether physical or metaphysical strategies were employed in their work. While some TBAs competently managed the presented cases, others invited either TBA colleagues or traditional resource persons to assist in such dire moments. Even though the TBAs—victims of patriarchy and colonial subjugation—continue to be marginalized and subjugated by male-dominated colonial and neocolonial power structures, they have significantly transformed their values to create a model for rural social work that provides social and emotional support to Indigenous women in rural spaces. The study therefore identifies a social policy and social work imperative for ideas sharing between different forms of Westernized healthcare practitioners and TBAs to engender the best health outcomes for rural Indigenous women.

I Am in Prison, Making Batik, and You Are Visiting Me

AbstractThis article contributes to the literature on interreligious engagement in prison from the perspective of Christian religious educational and missional ministry. It uses a case study conducted in the Class IIA Women's Correctional Institution in Semarang, Indonesia. In Indonesia, educational and missional ministry in prisons plays a vital role in supporting prison services. This ministry is understood as part of the Christian mandate to serve those in prison, regardless of their religion. Though spiritual development for Christian inmates is also essential, it is important to consider a comprehensive interreligious engagement programme that includes art, creativity, and imagination, including batik‐making. Using a postcolonial feminist perspective, this article proposes practices relevant to prison ministry, especially for female inmates. The practices are both educational and missional. We call the interconnection between the educational and missional a liberating third space – a space of interreligious engagement that is relevant for female inmates in Indonesia.

A Study of Donne's Poetry in Postcolonial Feminist Perspective: To His Mistress Going to Bed

To His Mistress Going to Bed is a love poem by John Donne, a British metaphysical poet. The poem describes the process in which the male protagonist seduces the female protagonist. Most critics focus on the mystical metaphor of Donne as a poet, but lack attention to the underlying significance of this poem. This article analyzes the female subject in poetry based on the theory of postcolonial feminism, revealing that the female subject in the poem is in a state of being banned by mainstream Western society, suppressed by patriarchal society, and colonized. It studies the issue of identity loss and identity construction of female subjects; This article also explores the social background and cultural colonization of the Elizabethan and James I eras in which the poet lived, and the subtle influence of colonial consciousness on the poet and his poetry. Ultimately, it is concluded that John Donne constructed a textual world of "others" through the poetic text in the process of creating this poem. This paper provides a new perspective for the study of postcolonial feminism and helps to drive people to engage in new reflections.

Examining Double Colonization and Subalternity in Jamaica Kincaid s Girl through a Postcolonial Feminist Perspective

This article’s focus is Antiguan American writer Jamaica Kincaid’s short story Girl. The story is also known as a poem since it is written in a poetic shape. The story was published by The New York Times for the first time in 1978, and then later it was published in a book named At the Bottom of the River in 1983, alongside many other stories by Kincaid. Girl talks about a relationship between a mother and a daughter in a colonial society. In Girl, readers can see how a mother teaches her daughter about her duties as a woman and a future wife. The piece has always been seen as either a postcolonial or feminist literary piece, rather than being a postcolonial feminist work. However, in this article, I claim that Kincaid’s prose poem is a postcolonial feminist literary work that depicts the struggle of women in the colonized Antiguan society. I focus on postcolonial feminist concepts such as subalterns’ voices and the concept of women’s double colonization by giving related examples from Kincaid’s Girl.

Post-Colonial Feminist Perspectives In Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Select Novels

Post-colonial literature as an extensive genre includes diasporic, immigrant feminist genres too. The advocate of Post-colonial theory Edward Said has proposed the concept of ‘otherness’. This is considered to be an important theory, especially for diasporas from South Asia bearing a colonial past. It also helps in understanding the effect of power relations between the colonizers and the colonized, the reason for otherness and alienation experienced by immigrants in their respective host lands. The representation of women as an object, sexual toys, and a maid before post-colonial had its transformation with the debut of postcolonial literature. Simon de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex had a huge effect on the readers in the transformation of stereotyped ideologies and myths about the female gender. Later with the advent of The Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf, the females were made to think of their rights, independence, identity, and the need to achieve them. Many post-colonial feminist writers took it as their prime responsibility to propagate and advocate the rights, efficacies, and strengths of women to the patriarchal chauvinists. The writers who move from one country to another occupy significant positions between culture and countries. They realize that their culture or identity doesn’t remain the same as it was earlier. Identity evolves, grows, and is subject to many changes. The act of writing makes him/her explore both cultures of homeland and hostland. Memories of homeland are kept alive in his thoughts and imagination in fact, becomes a channel between the self and the world. (Shailja, 2008, 52)
 Post-colonial feminists, who work for the advancement of women, also challenge the assumption that the gendered oppression is the primary force of 23 patriarchy. They question the approbation of the oppression as it leads to the misrepresentation of their lived experiences. Currently, they struggle to fight the gender oppression within their own society to preserve and safeguard the dignity of their women. Thus, the concepts of freedom, equality, and rights to women, stem from the Enlightenment based on the egalitarian beliefs and principles and have become the main area of concern for the postcolonial feminists of today. In short, postcolonial feminism is not just literature written by women, but literature of women voicing their experiences from within. This principle has created a welcoming ambiance for many of the women writers in Indian Writing in English to use literature as a vehicle to present the true state of Indian society, its treatment of women, and the psychological traumas of women due to their own traditional and cultural barriers. To this school of post-colonial transformed feminist ideologies belong the works of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. This paper aims to discuss the reformed feministic perspectives with special reference to Sister of My Heart and Oleander Girl.

Navigating Identity: The Intersectional and Postcolonial Feminist Perspective on Immigrant Women’s Dilemmas

This investigation delves into the intricate web of identity crises faced by immigrant women, viewed through the dual lenses of intersectionality and postcolonial feminism. The paper posits that the confluence of race, class, gender, and legal status creates unique challenges that often go unnoticed in the broader narrative on immigration. It dissects how postcolonial echoes shape present societal frameworks, highlighting the intersection with contemporary discrimination forms that exacerbate immigrant women's difficulties. The exploration includes their navigation of societal expectations, cultural dissonance, and their frequently unrecognized labor contributions, revealing a complex array of identity struggles that defy easy classification. By articulating these issues, this research seeks to elevate the discourse surrounding immigrant women, advocating for policy initiatives and societal acknowledgment that resonate with the nuanced intersectional reality of their existence. The aim is not merely to analyze but to forge pathways for empowerment and recognition, crafting a narrative that fully appreciates the rich mosaic of immigrant women’s identities and experiences.

DEPICTING THE MOROCCAN MUSLIM WOMAN'S STRUGGLE AGAINST THE PATRIARCHAL AFRICAN-MUSLIM CONTEXT IN THE POSTCOLONIAL MOROCCO

This essay aims to show how much Leila Abouzeid, the author of the novel Year of Elephant, has developed her own discursive space in order to express the unspoken and depict the abrupt trauma of postcolonial Morocco from a postcolonial feminist perspective. The concept of "the Future" or "l'Avenir" of Jacques Derrida should unquestionably be implied in the aftermath of postcolonial Morocco. In this setting, Morocco's post-colonial fallout is obvious and predictable. The marriage, education, and administrative institutions have all been severely corrupted. Women who gave their lives in the armed resistance are now abruptly subject to patriarchy, mistreated by customs, and shunned by the law. Through qualitative description, this paper claims that the experiences of women in colonialism are celebrated. Using feminist research, experiences of women from postcolonial Morocco have been voiced and the novel portrays a woman’s spiritual journey, and it is an event of cross-cultural literary history. Published in 1989, Year of the Elephant has had a great impact on promoting Moroccan women’s legal situation in contemporary Morocco. The new millennium has signaled a new phase for women’s legal triumph.

Navigating the twisted path of gaslighting: A manifestation of epistemic injustice for Palestinian women entrepreneurs

What exactly is gaslighting and how does it play out in the gendered context of women’s entrepreneurship? We contribute to Stern’s three-stage model of gaslighting by presenting a contextualised perspective through a ‘twisted path’ of gaslighting that maps out gaslighting interactions and consequences, reflecting how our findings coincide with, depart from and enrich this model; meanwhile identifying primary and subsequent (secondary and tertiary) gaslighting interactions. By examining gaslighting through the lens of epistemic injustice and testimonial injustice, we explain why some women entrepreneurs succumb to gaslighting, while others strategically employ testimonial smothering and infrapolitics as an empowered agential strategy rather than a disenfranchised consequence. Considering the lack of research on gaslighting in entrepreneurship, our geopolitical context emphasises the role of spatial position and identity within multiple systems of injustice, such as occupation and patriarchy, adding novel insights theorised and grounded in lived experiences. In doing so, we disrupt the influence of western feminism by embracing a postcolonial feminist perspective and promoting social justice through centring the voices of 40 internally displaced Palestinian women entrepreneurs. Policy implications underscore the need to raise awareness of gaslighting, facilitate its identification and promote preventive measures to hold gaslighters accountable.

Challenging Texts With Violence Toward Women: Lamentations and Comfort Woman in Feminist Postcolonial Perspective

Abstract: Postcolonial feminist hermeneutics presents many challenges to the traditional interpretation of Bible passages. Recognizing the ethical issues in Old Testament metaphors about unclean and unfaithful women, readers now contemplate how to understand and accept in modern times these texts that reveal disenfranchised and excluded voices. This study deals with the violence inflicted on women under the guise of reasonable punishment and its unavoidable results as these are narrated in cultural contexts. This study uses a postcolonial feminist perspective to examine how the book of Lamentations and the novel Comfort Woman reveal the violence, oppression, and forced silence imposed on women. In addition, through finding the value in both the witness to and resistance to suffering, as well as through exploring participation in suffering, this study probes how to dismantle the structure of colonialism that reduces women to victims and offers an alternative reading of the biblical script that in the past has justified violence against women.

Challenging Texts With Violence Toward Women: Lamentations and Comfort Woman in Feminist Postcolonial Perspective

Abstract: Postcolonial feminist hermeneutics presents many challenges to the traditional interpretation of Bible passages. Recognizing the ethical issues in Old Testament metaphors about unclean and unfaithful women, readers now contemplate how to understand and accept in modern times these texts that reveal disenfranchised and excluded voices. This study deals with the violence inflicted on women under the guise of reasonable punishment and its unavoidable results as these are narrated in cultural contexts. This study uses a postcolonial feminist perspective to examine how the book of Lamentations and the novel Comfort Woman reveal the violence, oppression, and forced silence imposed on women. In addition, through finding the value in both the witness to and resistance to suffering, as well as through exploring participation in suffering, this study probes how to dismantle the structure of colonialism that reduces women to victims and offers an alternative reading of the biblical script that in the past has justified violence against women.

PATRIARCHAL, RACIAL AND SOCIAL OPPRESSION ON ADAH AND HER EMANCIPATION THROUGH EDUCATION AND WRITING IN BUCHI EMECHETA’S SECOND CLASS CITIZEN

Buchi Emecheta is a prominent Nigerian writer in African feminist literature. In Buchi Emecheta’s novel Second Class Citizen (1994), the protagonist Adah suffers from tripple oppression. Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen (1994) puts emphasis on the concerns of racism, gender, sexism, marriage, bride price, polygamy, women’s obligation to bear male children, education, financial freedom, and writing fiction, as well as class oppression. In her opinion, subalternation and oppression of African women should be put an end. Buchi Emecheta analyzes the gender, class, and race intersectionality in her novel Second Class Citizen as a representation of African female literature on the basis of patriarchy. The analysis is made from the post-colonial feminist and Afro-centric perspective; therefore, it reveals how the social and ideological constructions of gender, class, and race cause racism, classism, and sexism in society. The female character, Adah, lives in the margins both at home and in the public. Emecheta not only wants to underline the patriarchal roots of her own Igbo tribe, but also wants to be critical of the British society that lets them stay in second-class citizen conditions. Adah has to experience the feeling of being the other in Western society whereas she has to struggle with the paternal thoughts of the African culture. In her novel, Emecheta underlines the lack of educational opportunities for girls in a culture which pushes girls to grow up as obedient wives. The novel clearly illustrates the difficulties of Igbo immigrants in London, who are regarded as second-class citizens, are supposed to stay in hovels in slum districts and simultaneously cope with the problems of sexual discrimination both in the domestic sphere as well as in the public sphere. As a black woman, the main character is both trapped by her gender and race. In her post-colonial feminist depiction, Emecheta attributes tripple oppression to Adah character. With her description of the protagonist, Adah, the author shows how it was difficult to be a black woman both in Nigeria and in England. Emecheta is not only critical of the gender discrimination practices in her own country, but also wants to criticize the hostilities in England towards the black people. In accordance with Floya Anthias and Nira Yuval Davis’ ideas, this article will argue that Adah has complex relations with her state as a black woman who suffers from patriarchy, racism and class distinction. Thus, this study articulates how Adah Obi is dejected in the patriarchal discourses of Nigeria or England and how she is marginalized as a black woman, as an immigrant, as a young girl, and as a woman. Finally, Adah’s gaining self- confidence and her self affirmation will be related to Helene Cixous’ ideas about the importance of writing in women’s lives for their emancipation process.

Overcoming the Myth of the Silent Woman and Double-Colonization in Ernest Hemingway’s Indian Camp

This paper explores the theme of overcoming the myth of the silent woman and double colonization in Ernest Hemingway’s Indian Camp (1924). It scrutinizes the subversive demolishment of double-minority status lifting the curtain on the thunderous screams of a female character as an emblem of expressive agency. To thematize this research topic and critically diagnose its feasible dimensions, this research paper casts the spotlight of analytical interpretation on the political dynamics, the implicit underpinnings and the insinuated textual unsaid underlying the female character of the Indian woman as a case study placed under scrutiny. To excavate in depth the ideological ramifications and the political implications tacitly embedded in the overall textual fabric of this literary artifact, this current study brings into play the postcolonial feminist perspective as a deconstructive paradigm through decomposing and dismantling a miscellany of excerpted extracts quoted from the decomposed text. This research paper selects relevant thematic insights that embody the counter-patriarchal upheaval and the defiant insurgency unravelling the notion of the Voice as a third space of self-revival, restorative replenishment of the Indian female subaltern and decision-making power. This research paper culminates in a wide array of clear-cut conclusions: A. The strategic reversal of the gender-exclusive model of grand narrative shifts it from misogynistic patriarchy and the top-bottom androcentric monopoly of power to a gender-inclusive vision of democratic parity, political enfranchisement and performative agency. B. The transformational metamorphosis in the tectonic plates of male-female asymmetrical power structures and the replacement of the hierarchically structured pyramid of man-woman relation by a harmonious continuum of gender complementarity. C. The counter-active shift drifts from the reductionistic mindscape of phallocentric discrimination to the anti-patriarchal philosophy of gynocentric perspective.

Deconstructing the Image of Third World Woman in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West: A Postcolonial Feminist Perspective

Pakistani writers, particularly Mohsin Hamid, have long highlighted women's struggle and their predicament under patriarchy in order to deconstruct their image as third-world women who remain passive against social and political injustices. Through the lens of postcolonial feminism as espoused in the classical postcolonial feminist works, “Three Women’s Texts and a Critique of Imperialism” and “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses” written by Gayatri Chakravarty Spivak (1985) and Chandra Talpade Mohanty (1984) respectively, this study intends to explore how female characters in Hamid’s novel, Exit West question and deconstruct patriarchal and colonial values which subdued them in the name of societal or western enlightened norms. These articles are used to explain the novel in the context of postcolonialism in general and postcolonial feminism in particular to investigate gendered roles and women’s resistance to patriarchal forms of gender violence and oppression. The study's outcome revealed that colonialism and patriarchy impose gendered roles on women to deprive them of agency and problematise their identity formation processes and independent thinking.

Postcolonial masculinity and access to basic education in Nigeria

This paper looks at gender inequalities in access to education and analyses of the complex entanglements of masculinity and post coloniality on retention by empirically drawing on the findings of 30 interviews with those who had dropped out of basic education. We discuss how the masculinities affected educational decision making and choices from a post-colonial feminist perspective in three major ethno-cultural groups in Nigeria. We argue that a key distinguishing factor between precolonial and postcolonial masculinity lies in the colonial transformation and impact and highlight that the history of masculinities in Africa is marked by colonial conquests, alterations, and destabilisation of the existing power relation structures and weakening of the socio-political power of the women.

The silent Tibetan women and their visual exclusions in Pema Tseden’s ‘Tibetan Trilogy’

It can be observed that Pema Tseden’s ‘Tibetan Trilogy’ is a series of male-dominant films. Men, at times, serve as ‘images’ used to represent Tibetan culture and ethnicity. Women in the trilogy can be considered silent and sometimes they are outside of the dichotomy of ‘image’ and the play of the ‘look’. This visual representation of gendered politics can be seen to differ from feminist film studies readings of ‘woman as image’ and ‘man as bearer of the look’ in traditional (Hollywood) mainstream cinema. Meanwhile, the trilogy rejects any objectification and exoticisation of Tibetan culture and landscape. This paper therefore takes into consideration a postcolonial feminist perspective to examine if it is possible to understand Pema Tseden’s refusal to include visually women in his ‘Tibetan Trilogy’ as one way in which he rejects the objectification and exoticisation of the Tibetan culture. In addressing this question, this paper will adopt the lines of inquiry, asking: can the ‘Tibetan women’ speak? If yes, from where can they speak? What can they speak? In this way, this paper raises questions for whether and how the permissible subjectivity of female characters in the trilogy can speak, be heard or be seen.

A postcolonial feminist exploration of the scholarship on women and educational leadership with a bibliometric approach

This study applied a bibliometric approach to a dataset of publications on women and educational leadership to critically explore the nature of research in the field and the utility of the bibliometric method in its mapping. The analysis was conducted on bibliographic records of 823 papers on women and educational leadership published from 1975 to 2020, which had been retrieved from the Web of Science. The results are presented in the form of lists of most impactful papers; most productive research centres/organizations and countries; similar lists of contributing disciplines and publication venues; as well as maps visualizing collaborative activity. A postcolonial feminist perspective used in interpretation of the results reveals that, on the one hand, the approach makes it possible to uncover the persistent coloniality and linguistic hegemony in the field, whereas, on the other hand, bibliometric metrification may contribute to Western epistemic violence and valorisation of scholarship in masculinist terms.

The Face of Food Insecurity is Female: A Post- Colonial Feminist Argument for Rural Women

The achievement of food security is a global priority, but remains a particular challenge for rural women. International frameworks, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to ensure zero hunger, improved nutrition and the promotion of sustainable agriculture. Yet, while the SDGs have significantly broadened the scope of targets focused on achieving gender equity and women's empowerment, as well as recognising that gender equality has a social, economic and political dimension, they remain silent on how substantive gender justice would be achieved. Using a post-colonial feminist perspective, the paper argues that the political, economic and social dimensions, specifically regarding food security, are interconnected and rooted in power inequality and patriarchy. The paper uses a qualitative content analysis to determine the extent to which policy frameworks developed in support of rural women in South Africa are gendered to reflect the experienced realities of women in rural, culturally traditional communities.

When “Silence is Complicity”: voicing Muslim women’s resistance through reiteration of the veil

ABSTRACT This research challenges mainstream discourses of the Global North through the debate between the activist group, Femen, and some Muslim women. International Topless Jihad Day (ITJD), hosted by Femen, ignited conflict with Muslim women globally. On ITJD, Femen insisted that women removed their veil since, they stated, it was the symbol of oppression used by Muslim males. Femen’s message maintained the illusions of white superiority in public space through its assumption that all Muslim women are helpless and voiceless. Responding to the protest, a group of Muslim women formed the online movement; Muslim Women Against Femen (MWAF). This paper focuses on how MWAF reiterated the veil as agency, transforming Muslim women’s online resistance. In expanding how this reiteration is embraced, this paper will lend post-colonial feminist perspectives to the contestation of the veil in public.

The Voice of the Black Female Other: A Post-Colonial Feminist Perspective in J. M. Coetzee’s Age of Iron

As a beacon in a storm, John Maxwell Coetzee has established himself through his intellectual contribution to the post-colonial feminism literature in general and South African slavery epoch in particular. Accordingly, this study has been devoted to critically reflect how Coetzee confined his pen to support the oppressed black South Africans against injustice, oppression and deprivation. Moreover, the paper reveals the South African inextricable components and haw the writer has deeply perceived both apartheid and post-apartheid history by his naked eyes. Coetzee’s Age of Iron reveals his unique ability to aptly penetrate his readers based on contradiction where pessimism is shifted to optimism and, therefore, the readers’ mindset is directly shifted from atrocity to love. The study then delves deeply to show how Coetzee provides a solution to bring two parted races, black and white South Africans, together through the role of women characters in his fiction based on both gender and racial schism. Specifically, this study critically scrutinizes Coetzee’s Age of Iron. The study applies the post-colonial feminism theory using discursive strategy based on sociological and anthropological analyses to reveal how colonization destroyed South Africans’ cultures resulting in a crisis of human segregation which is depicted through white women characters in the novel. By drawing the post-colonial black women’s treatment by the colonisers and the forms of resisting their hegemony, the findings of this study are expected to significantly contribute to the researchers whose concern is on black women in Coetzee’s fiction.