Beyond the Scarf: A Critical Exploration of Female Identity in Mohja Kahf's Novel

Abstract

This deconstructive article aims to analyze the issue of female identity in  Mohja Kahf’s novel The girl in The tangerine Scarf (2006).The analysis emphasis on deconstructive elements in the novel’s text: différance (differ and defer), trace, concept of absence, binary opposition, aporia, and so on. This study explores the ability of the protagonist i.e. Khadra to accomplish and institute her boundaries and world view distant from the powers of someone else, which might be signified through characteristics of her identity. This article demonstrates the significance of social relationships regarding identity formation. The protagonist (being a woman) faces the issue of identity crisis because of the following issues: hierarchical ostracism, identity crisis due to diaspora, development of personal identity, immigrant Muslim identity and ideologies, the cultural Identity of the Syrian Muslims, diasporic Muslim identities and social alienation of women. Hence, a continuous development of constructing and re-constructing an individual status that is reliant on previously recognized ethnic and cultural norms and her status in a Non-Muslim community prevented her from becoming a static identity.