The Pakistani Woman in Western Eyes: Self-exoticization in Afzal-Khan’s Lahore with Love

Abstract

This paper comprises a critical study of recollection of life events in the memoir

titled: Lahore with Love: Growing up with Girlfriends Pakistani Style henceforth

(LWL) by the Pakistani female writer Fawzia Afzal-Khan. We illustrate through

our analysis that Afzal Khan looks at and represents Pakistani women’s identity

with a Western lens. We argue that Afzal-Khan portrays herself as an

independent and anglicized woman who is in control of her sexuality, positioning

herself at the center like the orientalists, constructing a monolith identity of

Pakistani women in the narrative. Hence it is not only Western or white writers

that exoticize the Pakistani woman, but migrated writers like Khan misrepresent

this identity as she subjects herself to self-exoticization in her memoir with an

orientalist approach.