Female voices in 19th century Urdu prose and Reform movements

Abstract

In 20^th century British India, the debate over the role and status of Muslim women was the attention of the reformers. In the movement for women’s emancipation, the early efforts of reforms were directed towards defining the domestic role of women and dire need was felt to educate them. In a sense, this marks what could be called the beginning of a distinct feminist perspective. In 20^th century Urdu literature and journalism male Urdu prose authors represented women problems in their writings due to lack of education and set agenda to provide religious and traditional education to them. The domestic and religious character sketches represented in Urdu writings by male authors were not acceptable to women due to their traditional agenda, they join Urdu Literature to write and represent female voices in a professional way to speak for them.