In this project, I examine how the Senegalese women writers engaged with Islam to liberate Muslim women from the patriarchal system since the birth of the Senegalese women's writing until now. The analysis of narratives by Nafissatou Diallo, Aminata Maïga Ka, Ken Bugul, Fatou Diome and Marie Ndiaye allowed me to better understand the views that inform the process of building a free and autonomous, but especially a universal female subject and her relationship to Islam. In this study of five chapters, I have conducted a chronological study to identify the different interpretations of Islam developed by women to create an Afropolitan female subject. Since this study on Senegalese women's writing defines the relationship between women and Islam, especially during the post-colonial era, I turn to theorists of the African postcolonial literature (Achille Mbembe), postcolonial women's writing (Françoise Lionnet and Valerie Orlando) and Arab- Muslim feminists (Leila Ahmed and Fatima Mernissi) that offer alternative reading models capable of providing an updated and nuanced discussion of the issue of Islam in Senegalese women writing. A critical analysis of these novels has enabled me to confirm the hypothesis that these writers have engaged with Islam to defend women's rights. I also discovered that, like some Muslim female figures who were contemporary to the prophet Muhammad, these writers have started a fight against customs that, in the name of Islam, favor men to the detriment of women. They have also shown that Islam can be a means by which women are released from the oppressive structures of the social order to adopt their own vision and become global figures.
Read
