'Prisoner of my own story': Women and the politics of veiling in postcolonial literature

This work looks at the different ways women respond to the Islamic headscarf in their respective countries. By studying political policies and sociological texts in conjunction with literary study, this dissertation argues that regardless of differences in veiling policies, women are unable to find modes of resistance that do not rely on self-violence or violence toward others. The introduction offers a critical framework and outlines, for example, Judith Butler's idea of the "livable life" and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's idea of the "subaltern" along with the work of scholars who focus on the orientalization of the Muslim veil and those women who have a relationship with it. The first chapter argues that the women of Orhan Pamuk's novel Snow---specifically the headscarf girls, Teslime, and Kadife---reflect Turkish women's struggle to be heard in a state that denies some of its women the right to movement and education. The second chapter looks at Azar Nafisi's memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran with an eye toward the subtle ways her book club works as resistance to an Iranian government that otherwise makes its women desire to disappear physically and psychically. The chapter uses extra-textual writings by Nafisi to show that her work is being used to justify military actions she regards as unjust and unfair. The final chapter takes into consideration Salman Rushdie's novel Shame and Mukhtar Mai's memoir In the Name of Honor to look closely at the shame/honor binary enacted in Pakistan's political---both state and tribal---arenas and how women are directly affected by it. While in the novel the female characters resort to violent measures---suicide and murder---to resist their oppression, Mai's story offers a more positive conclusion to the dissertation by showing a woman who finds a third option for resistance. She tells the story of starting a school for girls to ensure that others do not suffer the torture she endured. While her story offers a non-violent measure for resistance, she also articulates the struggles of pursuing this route to have her voice heard.