Abstract
The present study aims to explore the journey of a female protagonist in an Urdu novel, Shehr-e-zaat, who gains spiritual insight in life and experiences fullness of her being through the process of self-realization. The study chiefly employs qualitative research design where Judith Baxter‟s framework of Feminist Poststructuralist Discourse Analysis is used within the broad framework of Islamic Feminism for an in depth analysis of the novel, „Shehr-e-zaat‟, written by Umaira Ahmed. This research is significant as it introduces the concept of „self-realization‟ as a tool or a process which can be used by women for acquiring religious knowledge and hence can increase their own interpretative authority in religion .The female protagonist in the selected novel discovers the difference between „wajood’ (physical existence) and ‘zaat’ (spiritual self) after twenty six years of her life which helps her in contemplating about the existence of human being in relation to the existence of God. It is hoped that this study would add a new aspect within the paradigm of Islamic Feminism in Pakistan.
Keyword(s)
Self-realization, spiritual insight, wajood, Zaat, Islamic Feminism