Gender and Environment: Predicament of Tribal Women of Pakistan in Jamil Ahmad’s The Wandering Falcon

Abstract

Research on the predicament of women of Pakistan’s remote tribal areas, has been little due to a number of reasons. From feminist theoretical perspective, this article focuses on pregnancy-related complications of these women, their being kidnapped, sold and raped while their tribes keep shifting from one place to another because of changing weather conditions. Through textual analysis of Jamil Ahmad’s The Wandering Falcon, this article examines how gendered positions of women are exacerbated by severe natural environment. It analyses female characters as situated in their respective socio-cultural and environmental conditions. It is found that these women are so profoundly institutionalised by the tribal patriarchy that they do not even consciously know of their predicament which has been compounded by environmental severities. This article contributes to highlighting the silenced voices of the tribal women in the region.

Keywords: Gender, environment, culture, tribal areas, The Wandering Falcon, Jamil Ahmad, Pakistan