Leila Aboulela’s Minaret as a Re-Inscription of Faith in Diasporic Discourses

Abstract

This article critically reads Leila Aboulela’s Minerat (2006) from both postcolonial and Third Wave Feminist perspectives to demonstrate how Najwa’s, the protagonist of the novel, life and struggle in the diasporic contact zones of London is an attempt to reinscribe the mini-narratives of a woman who has often been portrayed as a victim of tradition and subjugation. Anchoring the hybrid approach, postcolonial and feminist, provided the critical frameworks needed to restore the dignity and identity of Najwa in navigating through multiple liminal diasporic spaces against the waves of denigrating metanarratives. The paper has demonstrated that Najwa, after analysing and disapproving of both the traditions of Sudanese Muslim patriarchal society and life in diasporic Arab communities in London, turned to faith and religion as her last resort to rediscover and regenerate herself and identity. The paper has underscored the need to reinscribe and give voice to the marginalised subaltern. Najwa’s struggle is an attempt in that direction against the multiple subjugating metanarratives.