IIMTIAZ DHARKER: UNCASING ‘PURDAH’

Abstract

The contemporary feminist poets manifest their ideas and opinions on common themes like religious orthodoxy, search for identity, diaspora, feminism, women empowerment etc. Imtiaz Dharker is a poet, an artist and a documentary filmmaker, who was born in Lahore, brought up in Glasgow, Scotland and now living in London. She started her career as a poet in 1989 and called herself a Scottish Muslim Calvinist. She carried her life to places and her poetry too progress in a corresponding way. Her works sing along with her own escapade and episodes. Her poetry encompassed women’s issues and added invigorating momentum to the existing feminist movement. Her subject matter comprises of gender politics, identity crises, cultural and geographical displacement, home, freedom, journey, fundamentalism, communal conflicts etc. ‘Purdah’ or the veil, was her first theme which added energy to the flame of women empowerment. Her philanthropic and unprejudiced nature makes her write and sketch down her understanding and insight of life experienced as a woman, so as to become a source of inspiration for other women. Dharker dispenses a message to react and demolish the deliberately cruel, immoral and sexist functioning. This article is an attempt to justify that her work has largely contributed to the literary canon, particularly to the predicament of Muslim women and women in general.