BIOPOLITICAL FEMINISM AND REPRODUCTIVE NECROPOLITICS IN WAHEED’S “GOLD LEAVES”

Abstract

This study discovers The Gold Leaves by Mirza Waheed through the combined perspectives of biopolitical feminism, reproductive necropolitics, and radical feminism. The importance of this research lies in its focus on the ways women’s bodies, identities, and reproductive roles are influenced by political conflict and patriarchal power within the socio-political environment of Kashmir. The research seeks to analyze how militarization, state violence, and male-dominated social structures affect women’s freedom, decision-making power, and social identity in the novel. It also contributes to existing literary studies by connecting radical feminist thought with theories of biopolitics and necropolitics to examine gendered oppression in contemporary Kashmiri literature. A qualitative research design has been adopted for this study, relying on close textual analysis of the novel’s themes, characters, and narrative patterns. Radical feminism functions as the central theoretical framework to investigate the operation of patriarchy and its impact on women’s lives, while the concepts of biopolitical feminism and reproductive necropolitics help explain forms of surveillance, control, and violence imposed on female bodies. The analysis is supported through feminist literary interpretation and textual evidence drawn directly from the novel. The findings indicate that female characters in the text face various forms of oppression, including social restriction, reproductive control, and gender-based violence within a militarized environment. The study concludes that The Gold Leaves strongly criticizes patriarchal domination and political violence that silence and marginalize women in areas affected by conflict. Future studies may further investigate feminist resistance and reproductive politics in South Asian war literature.