Md. Mahmudul Hasan

Seeking Freedom in the “Third Space” of Diaspora: Muslim Women's Identity in Aboulela's Minaret and Janmohamed's Love in a Headscarf

Abstract Muslim societies, and especially Muslim women, have often received fetishized attention in (neo-)Orientalist literature. However, opening up spaces for the voices of Muslim women especially those wearing the hijab is long overdue. Therefore, the representation of diasporic Muslim women and their multiple identities in Leila Aboulelas Minaret1 and Shelina Janmohameds Love in a Headscarf2 is of paramount importance. These two texts show how, face to face with possibilities and pitfalls of diaspora, Muslim women negotiate and prioritize Islamic identity in the metropolis. While immigrant Muslim men are racked with somewhat unacknowledged exilic anxieties, the challenge and possibility of Muslim women largely concern gender and religion. For a group of Muslim women, the West facilitates a critical interrogation of their feeling of identity vacillation and creates a useful framework for thinking about their religious observances, which eventually helps them conceptualize and articulate their sense of belonging. For many others, it provides a third space in which they can confidently engage in a reinterpretation of the Islamic texts and thus reclaim an identity which liberates them from culturally enacted practices of their countries of origin.

Marginalisation of muslim writers in South Asian literature: Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain's English works

This article argues that there appears to be a pattern of disregarding the literary contributions of South Asian Muslim writers who produced English texts on a variety of topics. It then mainly contextualises Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain’s English works in the tradition of South Asian writing in English to identify a continuous trend of undervaluing Muslim literary contributions in English in the region. The article thus argues for a re-assessment of the evaluation of this literary tradition, so that the many forgotten South Asian Muslim writers in English, including Rokeya, regain their long overdue recognition.

Free speech, ban and “fatwa”: A study of the Taslima Nasrin affair

Of the many feminist voices in Bangladesh, Taslima Nasrin is the best known for the censorship, fatwa and subsequent legal intervention against her. Of all her banned books, Lajja drew the widest international attention, and that, as many commentators argue, was especially because of the involvement of the Indian establishment and media that sought to distract the world’s concern away from religious tensions and communal strife in India in the wake of the Babri Masjid’s demolition in 1992. Despite this political debate, the Taslima Nasrin affair is sometimes used to reinforce the binary between Islam and free speech, and the writer represented as a wronged woman of Bangladesh’s Islamic patriarchy. However, a look at the genealogy of the Bangladesh Penal Code and the Islamic position on free speech suggest that Bangladeshi censorship laws date back to the British colonial period and that there is a wide gap between the street rhetoric to punish Nasrin as an “apostate” and “blasphemer” and the Islamic tradition of free speech rights. Moreover, shifting ban controversies from Lajja to Ka/Dwikhandita counteracts the conventional branding of the secular as sole defenders of free speech and the religious as its chief opponents.

Animal models and natural products to investigate in vivo and in vitro antidiabetic activity

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease which has high prevalence. The deficiency in insulin production or impaired insulin function is the underlying cause of this disease. Utilization of plant sources as a cure of diabetes has rich evidence in the history. Recently, the traditional medicinal plants have been investigated scientifically to understand the underlying mechanism behind antidiabetic potential. In this regard, a substantial number of in vivo and in vitro models have been introduced for investigating the bottom-line mechanism of the antidiabetic effect. A good number of methods have been reported to be used successfully to determine antidiabetic effects of plant extracts or isolated compounds. This review encompasses all the possible methods with a list of medicinal plants which may contribute to discovering a novel drug to treat diabetes more efficaciously with the minimum or no side effects.

Flavonoids from Tetracera indica Merr. induce adipogenesis and exert glucose uptake activities in 3T3-L1 adipocyte cells

BackgroundTetracera indica Merr. (Family: Dilleniaceae), known to the Malay as ‘Mempelas paya’, is one of the medicinal plants used in the treatment of diabetes in Malaysia. However, no proper scientific study has been carried out to verify the traditional claim of T. indica as an antidiabetic agent. Hence, the aims of the present study were to determine the in vitro antidiabetic potential of the T. indica stems ethanol extract, subfractions and isolated compounds.MethodsThe ethanol extract and its subfractions, and isolated compounds from T. indica stems were subjected to cytotoxicity test using MTT viability assay on 3T3-L1 pre-adipocytes. Then, the test groups were subjected to the in vitro antidiabetic investigation using 3T3-L1 pre-adipocytes and differentiated adipocytes to determine the insulin-like and insulin sensitizing activities. Rosiglitazone was used as a standard antidiabetic agent. All compounds were also subjected to fluorescence glucose (2-NBDG) uptake test on differentiated adipocytes. Test solutions were introduced to the cells in different safe concentrations as well as in different adipogenic cocktails, which were modified by the addition of compounds to be investigated and in the presence or absence of insulin. Isolation of bioactive compounds from the most effective subfraction (ethyl acetate) was performed through repeated silica gel and sephadex LH-20 column chromatographies and their structures were elucidated through 1H–and 13C–NMR spectroscopy.ResultsFour monoflavonoids, namely, wogonin, norwogonin, quercetin and techtochrysin were isolated from the T. indica stems ethanol extract. Wogonin, norwogonin and techtochrysin induced significant (Pxa0<xa00.05) adipogenesis like insulin and enhanced adipogenesis like rosiglitazone. Wogonin and norwogonin also exhibited significant (Pxa0<xa00.05) glucose uptake activity.ConclusionThe present study demonstrated that the flavonoids isolated from the T. indica stems possess antidiabetic potential revealing insulin-like and insulin-sensitizing effects which were significant among the compounds. This also rationalizes the traditional use of T. indica in the management of diabetes in Malaysia.

Early defenders of women’s intellectual rights: Wollstonecraft’s and Rokeya’s strategies to promote female education

ABSTRACT Given that social constructions and deeply embedded cultural misapprehensions about gender, together with conventional views of female intellectual ability, denied women entry into institutional education, Wollstonecraft and Rokeya mounted a literary campaign to promote female education in their respective societies. They argued that female education would not only advance the cause of women, it would also be conducive to the interests of men as well as the wider society. Given these cultural backgrounds, this article examines the traditional notion of gendered intellect within their respective cultural contexts, discusses their arguments against cultural mythologies of women’s cerebral capabilities, and makes an in-depth analysis of their strategies for, and philosophy of, female education. It analyses social restrictions on women’s education and pits them against Rokeya’s and Wollstonecraft’s ideas that envisage equal educational opportunities for both genders.

The feminist “quarantine” on hijab: a study of its two mutually exclusive sets of meanings

Abstract The discourse on feminism is sharply polarized between those who regard hijab as essentially debilitating and those who see it as an enabling tool for dignity, self-worth and freedom. This article will discuss both the negative and positive associations of hijab and point out ways it is used by Muslim women for liberatory ends. It will go against the grain of a common argument that hijab equates seclusion and constraints on women’s participation in public life hence it is inherently oppressive. I will argue that hijab can potentially be used for diametrically opposite purposes. While acknowledging the fact that the Islamic dress code for women can be misused by patriarchal power systems as well as by women themselves, I will put forth arguments against dismissive and uncritical criticism of hijab.

Discovering Doris Lessing: convergences between Islam and her thoughts

The 2007 Nobel literature laureate Doris Lessing (1919-2013) is one of the twentieth century’s most prolific and versatile British writers. Her literary career is marked by the robustness and diversity of her ideas. The plurality of voices in her work makes room for discovering a very different Lessing from how she is usually construed and for discussing some of her views in a new and somewhat unusual light. In this study, I intend to look at her thoughts on education, literature, racism, and women’s rights and locate possible commonalities between them and certain facets of Islamic thought. As she is considered a humanist, a secular writer of great stature, the “grande dame” of British writing of her time, and handles explicit sexual relationships, a sense of remoteness and incomprehension is perhaps palpable in any attempt to discover an “Islamic Doris Lessing.” However, given that she is known for her courage and outspokenness, as well as for making unconventional moves and iconoclastic statements sometimes at the expense of her literary reputation, it will be interesting to see her ideas from an Islamic perspective.

Nasrin Gone Global: A Critique of Taslima Nasrin’s Criticism of Islam and Her Feminist Strategy

Taslima Nasrin’s writings, which are extremely critical of Islam, have sparked controversy over the contents of her feminist work and strategy. Although many dismiss these writings as an anti-Islamic provocation, her ideas are well-received in the West, where she is celebrated as a feminist rebel who defies the supposedly suffocating Bangladeshi Islamic patriarchy. Unlike earlier Islamic feminists, especially Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, who re-examined Islamic teachings in the light of locally prevalent gender discrimination, Nasrin directs her attacks against religion itself, putting almost the entire blame of gender injustice on it. In light of Rokeya’s work and strategy, and current struggles in Bangladesh to fine-tune the nation’s vision, the present article critically analyses Nasrin’s overly negative views of Islam and assesses the validity and efficacy of her feminist approach in Bangladesh society.

Muslim Bengal writes back: A study of Rokeya’s encounter with and representation of Europe

Abstract Despite its exploitative nature, colonialism facilitated continuous cultural exchanges between Muslim Bengal, home of the writer Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, and the European metropolis. Although Rokeya never visited Europe, she was exposed to European literature, overcame sociocultural constraints, and thus became engaged in a complex critique and assessment of European culture in relation to her own environment. This article explores the ways in which, as a writer, educationalist, activist and wife of a civil servant, Rokeya had opportunities to interact directly with European women and indirectly with European men. Importantly, she made available to her readers an interpretative summary of Marie Corelli’s novel The Murder of Delicia (1896), informed them about the Victorian “woman question” and identified comparable gender norms in Europe and India. This article discusses how Rokeya broke through the iron gate of purdah practices prevalent at the time, availed herself of opportunities to explore European culture, and commented on the condition of women.