At a time when more diverse voices are being heard and celebrated in the creative industries and beyond, the LSBM Lighthouse Programme is delighted to host a special event on the re-publication after 74 years of one of the first novels in English by a Muslim woman: Iqbalunnisa Hussain.

In 1944, the noted Indian feminist, Muslim reformer, and advocate for female education, Iqbalunnisa Hussain, published the novel Purdah and Polygamy: Life in an Indian Household, a trenchant critique of the practices of purdah and polygamy wrapped within the pages of a sophisticated and compelling modernist novel.

In 2018 Oxford University Press re-issued a new edited edition with an introduction by Jessica Berman (University of Maryland) and essays by Muneeza Shamsie, (International Advisory Board, Journal of Postcolonial Writing), Suvir Kaul (University of Pennsylvania) and Arif Zaman (LSBM).

Format: introductory remarks, open discussion and reception.

• Arif Zaman: Who was Iqbalunnisa Hussain?
• Muneeza Shamsie: Why Purdah and Polygamy is a pioneering work of feminist fiction and of particular significance in the literary history of South Asian English literature
• Nick Hillman (Deputy Academic Principal, LSBM): A response to Iqbalunnisa Hussain’s essay on ‘My Experience in an English University’ in “Changing India – A Muslim Woman Speaks” (1940 and republished with new material by OUP in 2015)

Capacity is limited.

In order to attend the event you will need to register for a ticket on eventbrite here.