Gender Based Oppression in Ayesha Baqir’s Beyond the Fields: A Feminist Perspective

Abstract

The world has been in the clutches of gender inequality and oppression of women since antiquity. Innumerable voices have been raised to address this disparity; but they remained less fruitful, contrary to the expectations, due to rigid patriarchal mindset of the societies. Ayesha Baqir's Beyond the Fields is a contribution of a Pakistani writer to become the voice of the voiceless, to empower the constantly underprivileged and undermined gender to get back their inalienable rights. This article is an explorative journey to show how women of Pakistan, especially hailing from rural areas, suffer at the hands of cultural norms. The oppression female characters of the novel are inflicted with will be looked at using the lens of Iris Young's 'five faces of oppression'. The five faces i.e., Exploitation, Marginalization, Powerlessness, Cultural Imperialism and Violence against women, will be inspected in the novel to showcase the age-old issue of women oppression in Pakistan.

Keywords Gender, Oppression, Exploitation, Marginalization, Powerlessness, Cultural Imperialism, Violence