📄 Abstract
The 2025 International Booker Prize awarded to Banu Mushtaq's Heart Lamp—a collection of twelve short stories translated into English by Deepa Bhasthi—constitutes a landmark recognition of the universality of women's suffering under patriarchal structures. Written over three decades, from 1990 to 2023, the stories illuminate the everyday struggles of Muslim women against conditions of systemic injustice and institutionalised helplessness. Denied education, confined to domestic servitude, and compelled to subordinate their desires to male appetites sanctified by religious authority, Mushtaq's female characters expose what Betty Friedan famously called "the problem that has no name"—the invisible yet totalising architecture of women's oppression (Friedan 15). Drawing on her background as a lawyer, Mushtaq anatomises the societal victimisation of women with unflinching clarity, situating individual suffering within the larger structures of patriarchal politics, religion, caste, and class. This paper undertakes a close reading of three stories from Heart Lamp—"Stone Slabs for Shaista Mahal," the titular "Heart Lamp," and "Black Cobras"—to explore the intricacies of the nexus between patriarchy, social norms, and religious authority that has left women paralysed and demeaned across generations.
🏷️ Keywords
📚 How to Cite:
Dr. Pooja Halyal , SHACKLED HEARTS, EXTINGUISHED LAMPS: PATRIARCHY AND FEMALE SUBJECTIVITY IN BANU MUSHTAQ'S HEART LAMP , Volume 11 , Issue 7, July 2026, EPRA International Journal of Research & Development (IJRD) , Pages: 155 - 159 , DOI: https://doi.org/10.36713/epra30861