From Shoots To Roots: A Post Colonial Feminist Analysis of “My Daughter, Mona” and “First Love” by Rukhsana Ahmad

Abstract

The present research aims to identify how do gender roles shape the experiences of second-generation diasporic women and how second generation women cope up with this situation in two short stories of Rukhsana Ahmad “ My Daughter, Mona” and “First Love”. Diasporic prose and poetry depicts the harsh realities of gender base issue as ethnical, alienation, identity issues, tracing back roots and writer resistance against the dilemma of tranquil western life. Post colonial diaspora literature exposes the tormented experience of second generation women of South Asian diaspora in west. All the problems or discrimination face by second generation diasporic women has been analyze in the light of postcolonial and transnational feminism and Borderland theory. The reseach follows the discriptive qualitative method of analysis and close text reading approach. The original text of the stories, articles, research paper and different books have been utilize while presenting the role of gender in shaping the lives and gender base discrimination to shape the experiences of second generation diasporic women. The research find-out the second generation diasporic women in the west faces multiple challenges due to gender that effects their lives negatively and  they follow cope up mechanisms in this  difficult situation.

Keywords: Borderland, South Asian Diaspora, Second generation women, Inter- generational conflict, Alienation, Fractured identity, Third world space, Gender segregation.