Female Subjugation through Religious Hypocrisy in Postcolonial Pakistan: An Analysis of Durrani’s (1991) Blasphemy

ABSTRACT
Patriarchy is a system, a practice of empowering men and debilitating women by peripheralizing them politically, socially, culturally, economically, and ideologically. Gender discrimination is a world-spread, deep-rooted menace and Pakistan is no different on this issue. In the post-colonial period, Islam, being the most adopted religion of the majority in Pakistan, has been manipulated to perpetuate this discrimination. Durrani (1999) dares to talk about one of the most taboo topics of ‘The Mullah-Pir Community’ which subjugates females by using a false image of Islam. The study uses the qualitative methods and theoretical foundations of Naik’s (2009) discourse on Islamic feminism and Spivak’s (1998) work ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’ to analyze the postcolonial discourse on women subjugation. In light of these theories, this study explores the unspeakable horrors perpetrated in the name of Islam to subjugate women in the novel Blasphemy. Duranni presents an in-depth analysis of the misrepresentation of Islam by predatory religious leaders. The study reveals that pseudo-clerics like Pir Sain have misconstrued Islam and its constitution to exploit his wife Heer. The study unmasks the duplicity of a man who is deemed as a religious caretaker. He discourages reading the Holy Quran with translation so that he can manipulate religion as an instrument to persuade other people for a blind submission. Through his prejudiced analyses of the Holy Quran he tries to stop women from attaining education, and subjugates her to an inhumane extent.