Ecological Crisis and Female Resistance: An Ecofeminist Study of Uzma Aslam Khan's Thinner Than Skin

Abstract

In recent years, scholars have grown interested in the interrelated issues of environmental degradation and gender inequality in the 21st century. Ecofeminism is an interdisciplinary theoretical approach that proposes that the oppression of women and nature are linked in a single political system of domination, which privileges the idea of control, hierarchy and capitalist expansion. In Uzma Aslam Khan's Thinner Than Skin (2012), the devastation of the ecology, climate change, and the marginalisation of local communities are all interwoven in the Rocky Mountains of Northern Pakistan. The present study is based on ecofeminist theory, mainly the theory of Vandana Shiva and Karen J. Warren who deals with the concept of ecological crisis and women's resistance to patriarchy and environmental oppression in the novel. The article uses a qualitative textual analysis approach to study the symbolic relationship between women and nature, the effects of exploiting nature, and the agency that women characters have as they confront nature's injustice. The book contends that Khan has overcome the traditional narratives of the environment by portraying women as active participants in the process of preserving the environment and social change. The article also defies anthropocentric and patriarchal beliefs as it promotes the idea of cohabiting with nature in harmony. This research ultimately is an addition to the ecofeminist literary criticism by marking the undeniable linkage between environmental sustainability and gender justice in the current South Asian literature.