Proclivity towards Westernization and Eurocentrism: The Trica of Contemporary Female Authors’ Deviation from Stereotypical Portrayal of Muslim Woman

Abstract

Deprivation and marginalization of Muslim women in socio-political structures foreshadow decadence in society. Whereas, depicting and leveraging them considerably represent proclivity and transformation in micro- and macro-structures of state. Modernity demands women’s liberty westernization and Eurocentric influence on Muslim women. Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire, Bapsi Sidhwa’s American Brat, and Elif Shafak's The Bastard of Istanbul revolved around Muslim women’s deviation from conservative traditionalities and tenacious tendencies towards Eurocentrism. The protagonists of aforesaid novels resist against the social limitations and stringent enforcement of cultural values through their deviant acts. This trica of fiction refute the tunnel-channel visions and stereotypes hypothesize hindrances for Muslim women who acclimatize themselves with moderate traits of age. This paper examines divergent eccentricity and resistance of female protagonists against stereotypical generalizations and socio-religious restrictions. Contending that contemporary Muslim females adapt westernized traits of living in these decades; they have counter-reacted against the social and cultural implicit and explicit stereotypes through male-chauvinistic dominance and repressive patriarchal constructions. The paper attempts that how Shamsie, Bapsi and Shafak have projected Muslim women’s proclivity and predisposition from socio-cultural conformities; they depicted women’s actions contradict with the typical representations and manifestations of them. The paper further explores how female characters orbit around their promiscuous associations annihilating cultural norms as corrosion, and confronting the cultural orthodoxy, imperial imagery, veiled and victimized self, oppressed without agency, confronting prejudice, and reflection of superiority. Thus, epitomizing the revolutionary perceptions of modern Muslim women illustrate contravening with all precedents of ostracism.

Keywords: Imperial imagery, Eurocentrism, stereotypical generalizations, patriarchal constructions, promiscuous associations, revolutionary perceptions