The Silence That Speaks

This ground-breaking anthology brings together 38 short stories culled from
over a century of writing by Muslim women from colonial and postcolonial
India. Selected from different Indian languages, it includes fascinating stories
by celebrated and emerging authors. It also excavates stories from early women's
journals such as Tehzeeb-e-Niswan, Saogat, and Indian Ladies' Magazine.
Written in different styles, modes, and forms, the stories deconstruct cultural
essentialism often involved in imagining Muslim womanhood and reflect upon
the diversity of imagined and lived experiences. They challenge sundry labels,
explore intersections of identities, debunk several myths, and demonstrate how
the authors navigate the world of voices and silences. Ranging from imaginary
geographies to topographies of Muslim ghettos, most of these powerful stories
narrate the spaces that Muslim women inhabit, and delineate their courage,
desires, freedom, struggle, and myriad subjectivities.