Countering Subordination: Muslim Women's narratives from Bangladesh

Abstract Women of the Indian subcontinent by and large have been silenced, oppressed, and marginalised by varied patriarchal, orthodoxical, and socio-cultural forces. History of colonialism, partition, and struggle for independence further accentuated their oppression in the name of the state, nation, and freedom. In context to traditional Muslim society of Bangladesh, women’s oppression is prevalent on a large scale in the form of dowry, male dominance, illiteracy, poverty, pardah, incessant childbirth, preference for a male child, oppressive family pressures and stringent social norms for women. The physical, reproductive, sexual, and psychological health of women is severely impacted by marital violence. Muslim women short story writers from Bangladesh have enacted, contested, and negotiated the internal and external forces of dominance and control through voices of resistance that find expression within the framework of their creative works. Keywords: Patriarchy, oppression, poverty, corruption, societal norms, customs etc