This study investigates how Pakistani still advertisements portray women and construct certain ideology. This qualitative research employs semiotic method to analyze the content. With stratified sampling technique, six advertisements have been selected all together that appeared in different magazines and in social media campaign of different products during the year 2019 taken mainly from Duniya Sunday Magazine, Weekly Akhbar-e-Jahan and social media pages of particular products. The selected advertisements analyzed the representation of Pakistani women in given time period with the help of semiotic analysis, whereas, the psychological lens is used to unveil the meaning and message constructed by specific signs within the advertisements. This study has examined the advertisers’ practice in depicting and constituting female identity in Pakistan, where most of the advertisements reveal Pakistani women as independent, confident and modern beings. This study will develop inferential and critical comprehension among masses regarding science of signs; also it would be significant for experts and policy makers who can retrieve Pakistani cultural elements while executing advertisements in future.

Postcolonial feminism is a collection of numerous ideologies aimed at explaining, initiating and preserving social, economical, political and legal rights of women in post-colonial settings. Many literary figures have put down their minds on paper to elaborate the themes of postcolonial feminism; Shaila Abdullah is one of those writers who have painted the miseries of feminine bodies in postcolonial milieu. This study concentrates on one of the short stories of Shaila entitled “ashes to ashes and dust to dust”, to explore the notions of oppression, power, hegemony and patriarchy through gender lens. Under the light of postcolonial feminism, the paper examines the protagonist of the story, ‘Dhool’ and investigates the relations and interactions between opposite genders to analyze impact of patriarchal society on the lives of feminine segments of society. The analysis depicts that the instances of patriarchy are universalized in the text, which dominate the physical and psychological state of the genders, specifically females. Through the demonstration of the courageous opposition of the character Dhool against patriarchy, the writer symbolizes the traces of feminism among postcolonial women. However, the overall journey of Dhool in the story validates the prominence of male power which makes her identity and physical presence devalued as well as makes her appearance not more than an object for men to fulfill their desires.