Female Agency and Communality: A Social Role Study of Hussain’s Rubies for a Dog: A Fable

Abstract

This study examines Hussain’s “Rubies for a Dog: A Fable”, keeping in view Social Role theory to study how Samira, the protagonist, showcases agency and communality. Samira, the only daughter of Grand Wazir, seeks to help her father by finding out the dog with twelve rubies studded in its collar by travelling alone to Nishapur. Employing qualitative content analysis, the paper traces the propagation and subversion of gender roles, gender stereotypes, female agency, and communality. The result reveals that women can both be agentic as well as communal; they possess the strengths to accomplish great things if the restrictions on them are lifted. This text can also be studied for its portrayal of male agency and vulnerability and a comparative study with another work of a western female author which can provide an interesting insight into how the dynamic of female agency and communality works in eastern and western worlds.