Patriarchy in the Selected Works Sherzad Hasan; The Fortress and my Father’s Dogs, A Woman on a Minaret and The Plain of the Slaughtered Gazelles

Abstract

This article analyzes how the Kurdish writer Sherzad Hasan (1951 or 1952-present) addresses patriarchy in his novels and novellas. Many Islamic thinkers try to distance and purify Islam from the unpleasant attributes that existed in culture, Arabic culture particularly. Therefore, Islamic researchers call for better readings and understandings of the Qur'an especially regarding the issues of patriarchy and feminism as for them patriarchy is rooted in the cultures and not the teachings of Islam. Although Hasan acknowledges that men do exploit religion for their interests, nonetheless he intertwines both the culture and Islam together and blames them all together for the patriarchal state of the Kurdish society. Through this perspective, Hasan's works conflate Islam with culture and critically question the results of their effects on the gender roles in the Kurdish society. A selected reading of Hasan's works shows how patriarchy is engraved in Kurdish culture by the forces of the common understandings of religion, Islam specifically. Hasan is one of the Kurdish thought pillars addressing patriarchy and its grave consequences, gender inequalities, and freedom