Introduction

Woman’s search for her identity is not new, yet it remains a vision of attainment for many. Much of traditional literature has presented woman through the eyes of man. The lack of female artists (poets and writers) has been the subject of criticism by Virginia Woolf, and Simone de Beauvoir as well as Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar. Simone de Beauvoir within The Second Sex addresses the myths to which female characters are confined: the Muse, the Praying Mantis, or the eternal Mother. Woolf, in particular, asserts that the lack of female artists has limited the scope of the female character to where she is non-existent, but women are complex and those complexities are needed within literature.

In addition to attempting to attain an identity as a woman, females of various cultural backgrounds have fought not only gender but ethnic identify as well. Maya Angelou, Lucille Clifton, and Jamaica Kincaid have all had a hand in identifying the African American woman, for example. Just as the African American female authors writes of the past, present, and future while embodying the cultural heritage and confines of her culture, Muslim women have done the same. This blog focuses on three such women who explore the taboo issues of their culture from the feminine perspective.