Gender in the Caste Equation

The stories in Dr Shajahana Begum’s Telugu book ‘Laddafni’ explore the discrimination faced by lower caste Muslim women

With an objective to show the problems being faced by the Muslim women in the midst of their lower and upper caste differences, Shajahana, a story writer and poet from Khammam district has written ‘Laddafni’ a book of stories with an objective to raise awareness in people.

Dr Shajahana Begum’s ‘Laddafni’ was launched at Lamakaan on Wednesday by novelist and story writer Dr Mudiganti Sujata Reddy. Shajahana completed PhD from Osmania University on the topic of ‘Muslim Literature in Telugu’.

Speaking about her book, she says, “I have written all these stories from my personal experience. My father is a teacher and we travelled to many places due to his regular transfers, which helped me to know the problems of different people in different areas. One of the stories in the book, ‘Sirsila’ is a true story of my relative. All of my stories are real incidents that happened to Muslim women and the discrimination they face.”

“Shajahana is a good story writer. Her father was also a writer, who wrote many stories and poems. She dedicated her life to let the world know of the problems of lower caste Muslim women, through her stories. Her stories like ‘Manishi Pagilina Ratri’, ‘Manchirayi’, ‘Vedana’ showcases the discrimination of subdued Muslim women.

It is difficult to question the Muslim creed rules as being a Muslim woman, but she did that in her stories”, said novelist and story writer Mudiganti Sujata Reddy. Andhra Jyoti editor K Srinivas, Sangisetti Srinivas, Dr Jilukarra Srinivas, Dr Koi Koteswar Rao and Shaik Sakina were among those who attended the book launch.