Sobia Mubarak - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Sobia Mubarak

The US-led War on Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11 has led to far-reaching repercussions for the c... more The US-led War on Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11 has led to far-reaching repercussions for the climate of the region, affecting weather patterns, bird migration routes, human and animal health, water resources and food production. Literary and non-literary discourses have responded significantly to this crisis. But there is need to contextualize Islamic injunctions and principles on the protection of physical and living environment. This article addresses this gap by using Islamic ecology lenses to analyse the representation of environmental crises in a selection of post-9/11 Pakistani novels in English. Attending to the fictional representations of environmental deterioration in Feryal Ali Gauhar's No Space for Further Burials (2007) and Nadeem Aslam's The Wasted Vigil (2008), the article highlights the need to integrate Islamic discourse on ecology in the current environmental epistemology to counter the escalating environmental crises. The research problematizes the nexus of militarism and neo-colonial capitalistic agenda that, in collusion with the existing social dualisms, aims at wresting the natural resources of the third world countries, pushing them into environmental precarity. It is argued that an ethic based on greater ecological inclusion can be generated from the environmental parameters provided by Islam, the major religion in the area under discussion.

This dissertation analyzes Pakistani and Indian plays that illustrate the nexus of power relation... more This dissertation analyzes Pakistani and Indian plays that illustrate the nexus of power relations that operate in Pakistan and India to disempower women and the way women resist by creating dialogic spaces or fissures in the exploitative system. I have selected plays by Ajoka Theater in Pakistan and plays dealing with the similar thematic concerns by notable Indian playwrights to explore common grounds and points of departure. I have chosen four images of women depicting diverse modes of oppression associated with women's bodies that are dealt with in these plays. Chapter 1 will examine Barri/The Acquittal by Ajoka theater, and Mother of 1084 by Mahaswata Devi, depicting women as victims of state violence during their incarceration. While chapter 2 underscores the issue of women trafficking and commodification of their bodies as a form of modern day slavery. I argue that women's bodies are harnessed and controlled by patriarchal forces that coalesce with capitalist system. When their voices remain unheard, the female protagonists in the plays, Dukhini by Ajoka, Kamla by Vijay Tendulkar, and Harvest by Manjula Padmanabhan, chronicle their resistance through their bodies in distinct ways. While chapter 3 examines that female agency in Pakistan and India is either negotiated through motherhood or through an absence of motherhood. The figure of the mother without child in these plays ranges from the harrowing circumstances of a woman who loses or relinquishes custody of a biological child (Bayen) to the traumatic state of a woman who miscarries/ undergoes an abortion (Barri/The Acquittal and Silence!) or one who never becomes pregnant (Kala Meda Bhes/ Black is my Robe). Chapter 4 illustrates the perception of performing or dancing women as the cultural or societal Other in Pakistan and India. My major objective is to illustrate changes in ideological discourses concerning this issue as the societies along both sides of the border developed after independence. I have examined Tripurari Sharma's Azizun Nisa and Ajoka Theater's Aik Thee Nani/ A Granny for All Seasons to elaborate this theme. While evaluating the dramatic techniques, themes and female protagonists of the plays, I have used feminist critical perspectives, also keeping in view, feminist theater traditions. Thus, the dramatic texts included in this study, explain the power relations and female subjectivity in Pakistani and Indian societies, and reveal the way women employ subtle and overt ways of resistance and attempt to subvert the power structure.

Journal of Contemporary Poetics

This study illustrates the representation of performing women as the cultural or societal Other i... more This study illustrates the representation of performing women as the cultural or societal Other in India before and after independence. It focuses on disciplining the female body while also addressing the shifts in ideologies pertaining to its representation on stage. This study examines how “social identities are signaled, formed, and negotiated through bodily movement” (Desmond 29) bringing into discussion the inclusions and exclusions of the performing women within the social fabric. It focuses on plays and films that interrogate the shifting identities of such women during and after colonial rule through feminist perspectives. In doing so, I also examine the images of women as portrayed in Rabindranath Tagore’s Natir Puja, Tripurari Sharma’s A Tale from the Year 1857: Azizun Nisa, and Kamal Amrohi’s legendary film, Pakeezah to explore whether the female protagonists under discussion resist or reinforce dominant conceptions of gender. I further investigate whether the female prot...

The US-led War on Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11 has led to far-reaching repercussions for the c... more The US-led War on Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11 has led to far-reaching repercussions for the climate of the region, affecting weather patterns, bird migration routes, human and animal health, water resources and food production. Literary and non-literary discourses have responded significantly to this crisis. But there is need to contextualize Islamic injunctions and principles on the protection of physical and living environment. This article addresses this gap by using Islamic ecology lenses to analyse the representation of environmental crises in a selection of post-9/11 Pakistani novels in English. Attending to the fictional representations of environmental deterioration in Feryal Ali Gauhar’s No Space for Further Burials (2007) and Nadeem Aslam’s The Wasted Vigil (2008), the article highlights the need to integrate Islamic discourse on ecology in the current environmental epistemology to counter the escalating environmental crises. The research problematizes the nexus of mil...

Journal of Contemporary Poetics

The US-led War on Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11 has led to far-reaching repercussions for the c... more The US-led War on Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11 has led to far-reaching repercussions for the climate of the region, affecting weather patterns, bird migration routes, human and animal health, water resources and food production. Literary and non-literary discourses have responded significantly to this crisis. But there is need to contextualize Islamic injunctions and principles on the protection of physical and living environment. This article addresses this gap by using Islamic ecology lenses to analyse the representation of environmental crises in a selection of post-9/11 Pakistani novels in English. Attending to the fictional representations of environmental deterioration in Feryal Ali Gauhar’s No Space for Further Burials (2007) and Nadeem Aslam’s The Wasted Vigil (2008), the article highlights the need to integrate Islamic discourse on ecology in the current environmental epistemology to counter the escalating environmental crises. The research problematizes the nexus of mil...