Haris Qadeer – författare

This ground-breaking anthology brings together 38 short stories culled fromover a century of writing by Muslim women from colonial and postcolonialIndia. Selected from different Indian languages, it includes fascinating storiesby celebrated and emerging authors. It also excavates stories from early women'sjournals such as Tehzeeb-e-Niswan, Saogat, and Indian Ladies' Magazine.Written in different styles, modes, and forms, the stories deconstruct culturalessentialism often involved in imagining Muslim womanhood and reflect uponthe diversity of imagined and lived experiences. They challenge sundry labels,explore intersections of identities, debunk several myths, and demonstrate howthe authors navigate the world of voices and silences. Ranging from imaginarygeographies to topographies of Muslim ghettos, most of these powerful storiesnarrate the spaces that Muslim women inhabit, and delineate their courage,desires, freedom, struggle, and myriad subjectivities.

This book traces the genealogy of ‘women’s fiction’ in South Asia and looks at the interesting and fascinating world of fiction by Muslim women. It explores how Muslim women have contributed to the growth and development of genre fiction in South Asia and brings into focus diverse genres, including speculative, horror, campus fiction, romance, graphic, dystopian amongst others, from the early 20th century to the present.The book debunks myths about stereotypical representations of South Asian Muslim women and critically explores how they have located their sensibilities, body, religious/secular identities, emotions, and history, and have created a space of their own. It discusses works by authors such as Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, Hijab Imtiaz Ali, Mrs. Abdul Qadir, Muhammadi Begum, Abbasi Begum, Khadija Mastur, Qurratulain Hyder, Wajida Tabbasum, Attia Hosain, Mumtaz Shah Nawaz, Selina Hossain, Shaheen Akhtar, Bilquis Sheikh, Gulshan Esther, Maha Khan Phillips, Zahida Zaidi, Bina Shah, Andaleeb Wajid, and Ayesha Tariq.A volume full of remarkable discoveries for the field of genre fiction, both in South Asia and for the wider world, this book, in the Studies in Global Genre Fiction series, will be useful for scholars and researchers of English literary studies, South Asian literature, cultural studies, history, Islamic feminism, religious studies, gender and sexuality, sociology, translation studies, and comparative literatures.