Voice against Instrumentalization of Shame in Sanghera’s Daughters of Shame: A Feminist Perspective

Abstract

The primary aim of this research is to explore how the female protagonists of the novel, Daughters of Shame by Jasvinder Sanghera resist the patriarchal trend of instrumentalizing women as shameful creatures, marginalizing women and how they struggle to establish their identity. Through the close reading of the text from the perspectives of Materialist feminism, the paper focuses on how the major women characters, along with the writer herself, like Shazia, Fozia Maya, Shabana and Yasmin help each other by giving psychological and physical support to fight against exploitation by men. These characters represent the dominated Pakistani Muslim and Sikh women in the modern city in Derby in particular and the Sikh and Muslim communities in general. The memoir has presented women as the object to be used for convenience, the satisfaction of men, and as unpaid domestic laborers. The chief finding is that the memoir depicts the social reality of how Muslim and Sikh women living in Western countries are compelled to tolerate domestic violence, honor-based crimes, and forceful marriage. It is expected that the article will encourage other researchers to apply materialist feminism in other fictions.