ECONOMIC IMPACT OF THE GENDER RELATED PROVERBS OF PASHTO ON THE LIFE OF WOMAN: AN ANALYSIS IN THE LIGHT OF FOUCAULT’S CONCEPT OF POWER AND KNOWLEDGE

Abstract

Proverbs are a discourse which has an important role in our daily life. Through proverbs we interpret the social reality around us as it is through language that we define ourselves and the world around us. Pashtuns follow the code of Pashtunwali, which has provided them a guideline in all aspects of life. Pashto proverbs as a social discourse have also evolved from the same code.  Pashto proverbs exclude the social world for women as it belongs to men, and similarly, their economic role has been annihilated in this social discourse. The current study is an effort to explore the strong connections which exist between the way the economic role and status of Pashtun women have been portrayed by the Pashto sexist proverbs. The paper investigates how through the social discourses, injustice and inequality is maintained through gender stereotypes. There are a large number of proverbs with misogynistic views in Pashto that are used in patriarchal structures to sustain gender ideologies and stereotyping in order to create superior masculinity and inferior femininity, thus depriving woman of her due social and specifically economic status. The economic impact of sexist proverbs of Pashto on the life of woman has been analyzed in the light of Michele Foucault’s concept of power and knowledge. As the study is interpretive qualitative research, the tool of thematic analysis has been applied to it.