The Representation of Gender: A Post-Colonial Feminist Analysis of Bina Shah’s Before She Sleeps

Abstract

This current study deals with analyzing orients/female-characters in Before She Sleeps by Bina Shah. This paper is worth reading from the perspective of post-colonial feminism as it delineates issues of gender and its exploitation. The current study qualitatively follows Spivak’s model of study: gender representation as well as subaltern treatment of orients/women. Data collection method follows primary data collection and secondary data collection method. The former one mainly depends on the target text, and the latter one follows different research papers, books, and journals. The fundamental purpose of this paper is to manifest Shah’s portrayal of women, the status of orients in patriarchal society, and how female gender is persecuted in male-dominated society. Besides, how women have been degraded and given inferior status according to Said’s (1995) concept of Orientalism. The results show that still women are considered inferior; they usually get subaltern treatment from male members of society; they have been lemmatized up to the walls of their accommodations; and they have not been given equal rights as men. The limited access to education as well as other social activities affects their whole lives. Above all, such cruelty sows the seeds of rebelliousness, and finally women-characters like Sabine, Rupa, Serfate, and Diya, are compelled to leave their homes to find accommodation in the Panah, showing how post-colonial women suffer differently than Western women.