Chaudhary, Fariha

English

University of Huddersfield Repository

University of Huddersfield RepositoryChaudhary, FarihaFemininity And Image ConstructionOriginal CitationChaudhary, Fariha (2009) Femininity And Image Construction. In: University of Huddersfield Research Festival, 23rd March - 2nd April 2009, University of Huddersfield. (Unpublished)This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/4763/The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of theUniversity, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the itemson this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners.Users may access full items free of charge; copies of full text items generallycan be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in anyformat or medium for personal research or study, educational or not-for-profitpurposes without prior permission or charge, provided:• The authors, title and full bibliographic details is credited in any copy;• A hyperlink and/or URL is included for the original metadata page; and• The content is not changed in any way.For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, pleasecontact the Repository Team at: E.mailbox@hud.ac.uk.http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/FEMININITY & IMAGE CONSTRUCTIONIdentity development of women through LanguageLanguage constructs identity. The moment a person expresses something, gives his thoughts and words he lets others know of  his position in the social set up. The particular choice of words may also highlight one’s age, interest, gender, status and education.Gender identity and male and female social roles are  expressed by the use of different language. (Gal,1991)Patriarchy andSouth AsianWomenWomen in the South Asian society are mainly, sadly to say, the victims of the patriarchal attitudes. Being forced tolive their lives in shadows, the women of suchsocieties are forced to struggle continuously to prove their worth and get some appreciation.Unlike males, being women in the male dominant society of South Asia is certainly not enough to deserve love, care, attention, appreciation, acknowledgment and basic individual rights. Women in any phase of their life young, middle aged or old has to prove that she is also worthy of the things and opportunities that the brothers are getting in the family. This is usually proved by acting the role of an obedient daughter, sincere wife, caring sister, a good mother, helping daughter-in-law and a supportive member of the extended family till the day she dies. Women in the South Asian society seldom get to live the life they desire to live, basically due to the ideology built on the fact that women are weak, helpless, senseless objects with limited functions in the society and they need to taken care of financially, morally, socially for their well balanced life. Due to this their being is usually considered as a “burden” carried by the father of the South Asian societal set up until the right time comes for the father to hand the “burden” over to the husband to be after marriage giving the future husband all the rights and control previously exercised by the father (or any other male guardian in case the father has died). The feudal and tribal family systems under the influence of religious extremists have set boundaries inescapable for the common, less educated village women.Born and bred generation after generation in the atmosphere of servility, the South Asian women are programmed and conditioned to see virtue in their sins, wisdom in deception and freedom in serfdom. The decadent and superfluous social family system forced the women of South Asia to mortgage their noble pride, indomitable courage, love free will creative power sensibility and passion towards tribal and feudal damnation. South Asian novelists, BapsiSidwa and Quaisra Sharaz have very artistically portrayed the identitiy and image construction of women highlighting the religious-cultural impacts on women’s lives.  Fariha Chaudhary PhD 1st Year Department of English.

Femininity And Image Construction

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