Puja Banerjee
2020-03-17
<p>This paper seeks to look at S. L. Bhyrappa’s 2014 novel Aavarana: the Veil as a text which problematises<br>
the issue of woman identity vis-à-vis religion. Religion in its institutionalized form has often served as a<br>
site of power and conflict and gender roles have been determined by the religious rituals, practices and<br>
customs ascribed to men and women. Women are born into the religion of the male member, i.e. the<br>
father and after marriage, adapt to the religious practices prevalent in her husband’s family. In the<br>
formation of women identity, religion operates at different subtle levels. Mehrdad Darvishpour in “Islamic<br>
Feminism: compromise or challenge to feminism?” rightly observes: “Generally, religions have a<br>
patriarchal view of the relationship between the genders.” The identity of women is often manipulated by<br>
how they are viewed in religious practices and scriptures What means to be an ideal woman is determined<br>
by her roles in the observance of various religious rituals and customs, irrespective of the religion in<br>
question. Every religion determines certain roles and responsibilities for the women in it to prove<br>
themselves to be conventionally ideal women, displaying unquestionable loyalty to and profound faith in<br>
the religion of her father or husband. This, in a sense, naturalises her inferiority to the male members of<br>
that religion and of the society, in general. In my paper, I will try to show how this vicious connection<br>
between patriarchy and institutionalized religion which tends to stereotype women, operates to<br>
problematise the identity of Lakhsmi alias Razia, the protagonist and how religion turns out to be a tool of<br>
patriarchy to curb her physical, sexual, intellectual and ideological freedom.</p>
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3712812
oai:zenodo.org:3712812
Zenodo
https://zenodo.org/communities/postscriptum
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3712811
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
postScriptum: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Literary Studies ISSN: 2456-7507, 5(1), (2020-03-17)
Encountering Women Identity in the Face of Religion: A study of S. L. Bhyrappa's Aavarana: The Veil
info:eu-repo/semantics/article