The present study explores the discourse used in the ‘Aurat March’ celebrations in observance to International Women’s Day on March 9, 2019 in Karachi and Lahore, the major cities of Pakistan. Western post feminism has immersed into social and cultural norms of contemporary Pakistani society. Theoretically grounded in Gill’s (2006) concept of ‘gendered neo liberalism’ and Cixous ‘The laugh of the Medusa’, a qualitative enquiry into the selected posters hoisted in Aurat March procession highlights relevance of the march to the changing context influenced by strong opposing direction followed by Pakistani women. Such a deviation has led them to associate their situation to gendered neo-liberalism, a power exercise to seize the political rights of women. A critical thematic analysis of the slogans exposes the effectiveness of the posters on target group to foster new identities. The study concludes that instead of getting hold of political rights, the activism has greatly endangered women by foregrounding their bodies as ‘objects’ ready to be consumed further. Moreover, the idea of ‘sex self identification’ has created a chaos in Pakistani society directly in clash with religion and culture. For future researches, this study proposes an investigation at a broader level in Pakistani context if an explicit rejection of the social and cultural structures leads to bring change in the status of Pakistani women in general or the activism holds elite class women a priority. Keywords: Aurat March, Deviation, Activism, Post-feminism, body femininity, neo-liberalism

This article reworks the notion of “claustrophobia,” symbolically in relevance to expatriate fiction writing. Claustrophobia is an individual’s fear of being confined in an enclosed space. Qualitative in nature, this paper critically investigates Monica Ali’s Brick Lane (2003) that delineates a constant fear in the immigrant characters alienated from their host country. Globalisation owes much to provide rationale for the current study. Within the larger context of Diaspora, Sarup’s notion of migration, with both negative and positive implications, is used as a theoretical framework to study the juncture of expatriate desire of home and examine how exile causes an irrational fear entrapping immigrants in the wake of socio-cultural and economic differences. The present study refers to it as a state of “being ambivalent” and concludes that exile (forced or by choice) though deadening, regenerates life for those who exercise their energies to combat their existing situations. For others, it proves fatal. The study significantly provides an insight into South Asian culture and norms in comparison to British culture and through Ali’s work challenges the allegation against women’s writings being limited in experience, non-scientific and “womanly.

'Native informant' acclaims the transmission of stereotypical representation of Muslim society as a general rule and women specifically. The present work provides a comprehensive prospect of women status defined by religion Islam to build consciousness globally. Through qualitative inquiry, the present study critically analyzes Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003). Iranian writer Azar Nafisi assumes the role of 'native informant' who amplifies the narrative to authenticate her account. The study employs 'amplification' as apparatus to scrutinize fundamentalist perspective of religion Islam reflected in Iranian fiction. Spivak's concept of 'native informant' is reproduced in the narratives to establish the narrator's role as a hybrid character whose thoughts regularly record and oppose the assumed fundamentalist obligations set by the Islamic regime. The narrative begins in the narrator's house, who ardently assembles her university students and discusses various classical literary works. The memoir recounts a woman's experience in Tehran before, during, and after the revolution. Names of characters are concealed to keep individuals safe from probable vengeance and degradation. Primarily, the study enquires how knowledge production through writing personal narratives runs into mainstream culture, characterizing the representation of stereotypes. Narratives inform about a specific culture and mirror the role of 'native informant' in amplifying fundamentals of native culture and religion. Nafisi's account of extensive cultural and religious judgments from context-specific attempts to extrapolate that Islamic Republic Iran vehemently formed a desperate unobtrusive region, which maltreated women. Nafisi may have a self-protective standpoint for women, but she emerged more like a "native informant" rather than a social reformer by amplifying the situation.

There has always been a huge debate about the misrepresentation of Pakhtuns. Pakhtuns have always been depicted as barbaric, exotic and uncivilized. Such kind of depiction disenfranchised their actual image throughout the world. Such misrepresentation basically paralyzed the identity and image of the said community. The present study explores Saidian' Co-Optation'' (self-orientalism) as a concept, following the footsteps of colonizers and contributing to the cultural misrepresentation of Pakhtuns. The primary text for the research is The Wandering Falcon (2011) by Jamil Ahmad. Such sort of misrepresentation carries different meanings andserves multiple purposes for the colonizers. The uni-polar, stereotypical and generalized misrepresentation unquestionably clouded the image of Pakhtuns. The research method used for the analysis of the selected text is textual analysis. It argues that howthe said work is keeping the promises of the colonizers to misrepresent their own people. The present study also highlights that how Pakhtuns are still under colonial suppression and are misrepresented by their own people.