From Constraint to Liberation: Interrogating Religion and Culture through Gender in Imtiaz Dharker’s Poetic Vision

Abstract

Imtiaz Dharker’s poetry offers a searing critique of the intersecting forces of religion, culture, and gender that shape women’s identities and lived realities. This paper undertakes a close textual analysis of three of her seminal poems—Purdah, Honour Killing, and This Room—to trace the trajectory from female constraint to self-liberation. Through the lens of feminist, postcolonial, and intersectional theory, the study explores how Dharker exposes patriarchal structures that confine women physically, psychologically, and spiritually, while simultaneously gesturing toward acts of defiance and self-assertion. Situating Dharker in conversation with poets such as Adrienne Rich and Kamala Das, the paper highlights her unique ability to weave personal experience with broader socio-political critique. Religion and culture emerge not as static entities, but as contested terrains where women negotiate agency, resist oppressive traditions, and reclaim bodily and intellectual autonomy. By juxtaposing Dharker’s work with global literary discourses on gender and identity, this paper argues that her poetic vision not only interrogates structures of power but also reimagines spaces for liberation and transformation. This study adopts a qualitative, textual analysis framework to interrogate select poems from Imtiaz Dharker’s oeuvre- Purdah, Honour Killing, and This Room and examines the intersectionality of religion and culture through gender, with Feminist theory and Postcolonial theory serving as the central critical lenses.