The Role Of Female Characters In Our Lady Of Alice Bhatti?

Female characters have undoubtedly experienced a lot of transformation in Literature over the time. They have shifted from archetypal roles of noble, weak and suffering figure in a patriarchal world to strong characters, they have achieved or striving for equal rights for themselves. Their portrayal as complex characters has created a new wave of feminist writers, readers and characters. South Asian writers choose to use English as a tool to address global audience extensively. Being an author, Hanif has deployed power through the character of a Christian nurse “Alice” who is below ordinary by her status in the narrative. Her low caste Christian background and her past of spending time in jail makes her presence obscure in the social set up …show more content…
Women of religious minorities are approximately 3 million in Pakistan. Yet there is no representation of women's of minorities in summit and higher legal, or common and remote administrations Female body as a site for both clash and peace is significant trope in fictional works; Our Lady of Alice Bhatti (2011) is relevant because it also discusses the body/soul and body/ city dichotomies. In the novel Karachi appears as a place for understanding the relationship which an individual’s physical and spiritual body shares with city. The dynamic spaces of psyche and desires are in clash with the physical places in Hanif’s Karachi. In the narrative, Alice rises as an associating link between body, religion, caste, class and Karachi. She is a junior nurse and daughter of “chief janitor in the Municipal Corporation” (Hanif 67). Being a Catholic Christian and a ‘choohra’ by caste, the term itself is derogatory and conveys at once society’s condensation and prejudice against the low caste sweepers and sweepresses; she encounters the shame of being an “untouchable” and