Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan’s Muslim female writers' voices are synchronized in the name of women's rights within Islam. However, the urgency of their concerns and the availability of free local spaces to raise their voices vary in degrees. Their female Islamic tropes differ in their presentations, backgrounds, settings, and the level of disputation of existing anti-women conservative Islamic practices in their respective states. This study analyses how female authors from these regions navigate and critique socio-political Islam both before and after the establishment of conservative regimes in Pakistan (1971), Iran (1979), and Afghanistan (1989). As strict ideologies—ranging from conservative Shia interpretations in Iran to rigid Sunni models in Afghanistan and Pakistan—took hold, the selected narratives extensively scrutinize female issues against the backdrop of Islamic fundamentalism manifested in distinct sectarian forms.
Ali Fawad is the author of the monograph Renegotiating Islam with Post-colonial Pakistan and the West: Shamsie, Naqvi, and Haji (Cambridge Publishing) and is currently researching literary approaches to religious archives. He has served as a Lecturer at the Government Post-Graduate College Civil Lines, Khanewal. Previously, he has taught Master’s and graduate courses on American Literature, Post-colonialism, and Translation Studies at the Government Emerson University Multan, Pakistan and undergraduate courses at colleges in Kabirwala and Mian Channu (2012–2020). Beyond teaching, he managed departmental committees and served as a Supervisor for the British Council (2009–2012). He actively engages in global discourse, recently co-hosting a workshop on Indian Literature at Universität Tübingen, Germany (2024). Committed to social welfare, he has been a member of the Naimun Naseer Welfare Trust since 2009, leading relief efforts for flood and COVID-19-affected communities in Pakistan.
»Challenging and Enriching the Archive of Religious Knowledge and Tradition. Literature as a Work of Translation«, in: Post-colonial Studies (In submission).
»Disputation and Glocalisation of Female Identities and Marginalisation in the Fictional Narratives of Female Muslim-European Diasporic Writers«, in: Richa Gupta and Aravinda Bhat (eds.), Women's Writing in India and Europe. Intersecting Narratives from Worlds Apart, Manipal 2025 (Chapter Submitted).
Renegotiating Islam with Post-colonial Pakistan and the West. Shamsie, Naqvi, and Haji, Newcastle upon Tyne 2025.
»Pinterian Model World. Exploring the element of anger in Harold Pinter’s two Plays, The Caretaker and No Man’s Land«, in: Erevna Journal of Linguistics & Literature 7 (2024), No 2, S 1–12.
with: A. Ammar, N. Ali, G. Ayaz, K. Shehzad, H. Naz , »Folklore and Quest for Identity«, in: Third International Social Sciences Conference, Islamabad 2016.
How do Muslim female writers dispute and localize the rise of religious, cultural, and political conservatism? This talk examines the literary responses of female Muslim authors from Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan during and after the politicoreligious upheavals of the late 20th century.