The Study of Islamic Feminism; Mapping in Laila Aboulela’s The Translator

Abstract

This paper aims to make personality analysis in the characters of Sammar,
Nahla, Mahasen, and Yasmin from Leila Aboulela’s novel The Translator under
the lens of Islamic Feminism, which was first, named by Margot in 2002. In
this research the rules and regulations and rights which are set for the
betterment of the women by Allah Almighty Himself are being discussed in the
light of Sunnah, Hadith and Qur’an which is also taken as the sacred
text. Different words, phrases and expressions are interpreted on the basis of
religion and culture. Under this term it is believed that Islam has provided women
with all sorts of rights consisting even of those which one could not even imagine,
it gives the message of equality and also commands its believers to protect them
like a treasure but also gives a free will to them. Where the society wants to treat
them differently and creates such roots in the mind of people that a man’s conscious
and unconscious simultaneously control his personality; his actions as well as his
discourse for treating Muslim women as inferior to them thus since childhood all
sorts of knowledge, discourse, myths, stories, beliefs, art, literature, fairy tales and
culture etc. influence their unconscious mind. In The Translator Leila Aboulela in
a unique way explains these archetypes through the life of her protagonist and
that how religion in being intertwined by culture and that how much a lady
specially have to fight for using her Shariya rights. To show that there is need
to unveil certain mysteries in the universe, which hold connections and ties among
different phenomenon.