Reading Between the Lines: Exploring the Literary Identities of Selected Muslim Women Writers in Malaysia

The role of Muslim women in Islamic societies has always been up for contestation. The fascination with this sect of society has over the years drawn scholarly literature that describes the broad thrust of the various spaces or locus of Muslim women’s lives: ideology, law, family, economy, and politics. Monolithic stereotypes of Muslim women have long festered in the West, distorting a lot of what is propagated through media. It was not until the last two decades have we observed major works and representative studies come to light. Even so, the underlying complexities involving these women remain in the grey. In the light of this, the study attempts to explore how Muslim women writers project themselves and others in Malaysian literary work in English. Through a textual analysis of selected short fiction and poetry, this study captures Malaysian-Muslim women who are divided between their own cloistered upbringing juxtaposed against the stark realities of colonialism, social injustices and racial prejudices. It touches on the challenges of ethnic diversity in the shadows of the multifaceted Muslim woman who reveals her inner workings entrenched in her words.