Prismatic Identities or Authentic Selves? Elif Shafak’s Three Daughters of Eve: A perspective of Intersectional Feminism

Abstract

Elif Shafak’s novel Three Daughters of Eve(2016), questions contemporary assumptions concerning women’s status in Islam and society. This study explores Eve’s daughters—Peri, Shirin, and Mona—to investigate how gender, religion, and culture overlap and stereotypes intertwine in the novel to create unique experiences, values, beliefs, and challenges in the lives of women. This study argues that Shafak’s inclusion of these overlapping aspects provides a basis for intersectional feminist discourse as a framework for understanding the complex nature of identity and self-understanding among women in the Middle East. The results of this study contribute significantly to the existing literature by demonstrating how the three females in the novel function as distinct self-identities through which Shafak negotiates assumptions of Western society about women and Islam. The study concludes that Shafak’s work, giving voice to her women elevates aspects of diversity and inclusion by revealing the various guises of discrimination against them and illustrating how these women find ways to project their unique voices and resist oppression.