Volume VI Special Issue II February 2026

Name of Author : Bhat Rehana Bashir

Title of the paper : Patriarchal Silences: The Erasure of Women Writers in Jammu and Kashmirs Urdu School Curriculum A Feminist Critique

Abstract: This paper examines the systemic exclusion of women Urdu writers from the Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education JKBOSE Urdu textbooks for Classes 8 to 10, employing feminist literary theory to interrogate how such omissions perpetuate patriarchal narratives. Drawing on Showalters gynocriticism and the concept of the male gaze Mulvey, 1975, the study analyzes the Baharistan series, revealing a complete absence of female voices amid a canon dominated by male authors who often objectify women, portraying them as passive symbols devoid of agency. Historical contextualization traces this marginalization to colonial and post-colonial reforms that prioritized masculine perspectives, sidelining trailblazers like Ismat Chughtai, Qurratulain Hyder, Razia Sajad Zaheer, Rakshanda Jalil,Parveen Shakir, and many more whose works subvert traditional tropes through agentic explorations of gender, identity, and resistance.

Keywords : Feminism, Gender Equality, NEP 2020, Urdu Curriculum, JKBOSE

DOI :

Page Number : 299-303