Negotiating Gender, Migration and Identity: A Feminist Diaspora Reading of Kamila Shamsie's Salt and Saffron and Saadia Faruqi's Brick Walls

Abstract

The objective of this research to find answer of the question of how gender, migration and identity intersect in the Kamila Shamsie’s Salt and Saffron and Saadia Faruqi’s Brick Walls using the perspective of feminist diaspora. Female writers manage to interpolate complex frameworks of women negotiating through the diasporic territories which are characterized by cultural hybridity, dislocation and changing conceptualizations of home and belonging. Using the feminist diaspora theory and postcolonialism, the paper looks at the way females of the protagonist challenge patriarchy without the negotiation of cultural and national identities in transnational settings. Salt and Saffron describes the psychological disintegration and cultural alienation of the diasporic women, whereas Brick Walls places emphasis on the everyday life and strength of the female characters living between the traditions of their ancestors and the diasporic modernity. In a comparative textual analysis, the study shows the workings of the gendered experiences of migration affecting diasporic identity and refuting exceptionless narratives of Western feminism and conformity of South-Asian cultures. The results highlight that female agency, memory and voice are significant to rethinking diasporic belonging through the lens of Pakistani feminism.