Voices on the Margins: An Intersectional Study of Women Oppression and Agency in Jasmin Darznik’s Memoir The Good Daughter
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1703.36Keywords:
intersectionality, patriarchy, Iranian women, feminist resistance, gendered oppressionAbstract
This study employs intersectionality theory to analyse Jazmin Darznik's memoir The Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother's Hidden Life (2012), focusing on the multifaceted oppression of Iranian women shaped by the intertwined forces of patriarchy, religion, culture, and class. This topic is significant as it illuminates the complex sociopolitical structures that marginalise Muslim women in Iranian society, where gender identity and agency are constrained by overlapping systems of power. Women’s personal histories are often erased in rigid patriarchal societies. Darznik’s memoir serves as a vital narrative that challenges these oppressive frameworks by giving voice to the silenced histories of her mother and her grandmother. Through storytelling as an act of feminist resistance, the memoir confronts the secrecy and shame imposed by societal norms that suppress women’s autonomy and their agency. The memoir exposes the multilayered violence endured by women, including forced marriage and honour codes, while highlighting subtle and overt forms of resilience such as education, self-expression, emotional endurance, and intergenerational solidarity. By critically engaging with Darznik’s text, this paper highlights the importance of reclaiming marginalised voices and histories to foster an understanding of gendered experiences under intersectional oppression. It challenges the dominant sociopolitical frameworks confining women and affirms their right to autonomy, dignity, and voice. This research contributes to feminist scholarship by illuminating the transformative potential of personal narratives in advancing the understanding of Iranian women’s lived realities and challenging dominant discourses.
References
Abla, F. (2020). Diasporic Iranian Women Life Writing: An Analysis Using a Transnational Feminist Lens [Doctoral dissertation]. Concordia University.
Ahmed, S. (2025). Exercising Transformative Agency: South Asian Muslim Women Living in the United States [Doctoral dissertation]. The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.
Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York, NY: Routledge.
Chakrabarti, M. (2023). The Predictiveness of Gendered Racism on the Well-Being of Women of Color[Doctoral dissertation]. The University of North Dakota.
Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory, and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989(1), Article 8, 139–167. https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1989/iss1/8
Darznik, J. (2012). The Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother's Hidden Life. Random House.
Essien, S. P. (2020). Feminism in Culture and Religion. World Journal of Innovative Research, 8(5), 30-36.
Gondal, A. Q., & Hatta, Z. (2024). Religion and Gender Studies: Examining the Intersection. Journal of Development and Social Sciences, 5(1), 302-310.
Guan, A., Thomas, M. D., Vittinghoff, E., Bowleg, L., Mangurian, C., & Wesson, P. (2021). An investigation of quantitative methods for assessing intersectionality in health research: A systematic review. SSM-population health, 16, 100977. Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100977
Hanson, C. L., & Fletcher, A. J. (2021). Beyond the Trinity of Gender, Race and Class. European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 12(2), 135. https://doi.org/10.3384//rela.2000-7426.3360
Holstein, J. A., & Gubrium, J. F. (2000). The self we live by: Narrative identity in a postmodern world. New York: Oxford University Press.
Hooks, B. (2015). Talking Back Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black. New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group.
Hussain, S. (2019). Social justice, politics of authorisation and agency: A hybrid theoretical framework to study contemporary Muslim femininity. In Women’s Studies International Forum (Vol. 74, pp. 188-195). Pergamon. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2019.04.005
Jorba, M., & López de Sa, D. (2024). Intersectionality as emergence. Philosophical Studies, 181, 1455-1475. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-024-02155-1
Keller, L., Lüdtke, O., Preckel, F., & Brunner, M. (2023). Educational Inequalities at the Intersection of Multiple Social Categories: An Introduction and Systematic Review of the Multilevel Analysis of Individual Heterogeneity and Discriminatory Accuracy (MAIHDA) Approach. Educational Psychology Review, 35(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09733-5
Kelly, C., Kasperavicius, D., Duncan, D., Etherington, C., Giangregorio, L., Presseau, J., Sibley, K. M., & Straus, S. (2021). ‘Doing’ or ‘using’ intersectionality? Opportunities and challenges in incorporating intersectionality into knowledge translation theory and practice. International Journal for Equity in Health, 20(1), Article 187. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-021-01509-z
Kira, I. A., Omidy, A. Z., Fawzi, M. H., Rice, K. G., Fawzi, M. M., Lewandowski, L., & Bujold-Bugeaud, M. (2015). Are the Negative Mental Health Effects of Gender Discrimination (GD) Salient across Cultures? Does Self-Esteem Mediate These Effects: GD as a Continuous Traumatic Stress and the Pathways to Its Negative Dynamics? Psychology, 6(1), 93-116. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2015.61009
Naghibi, N. (2016). Women write Iran: Nostalgia and human rights from the diaspora. University of Minnesota Press.
Ndobo, A., Fauré, A., Galharret, J., Sarda, E., & Debont, L. (2022). The coping strategies of individuals in multiple jeopardy settings: the case of unemployed older women. The Journal of Social Psychology, 164(5), 640-665. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2022.2143313
Nisa, I. S., Shapiulayevna, A. P., & Fikri, M. N. (2024). The role of women in Islamic politics: From the early period to the contemporary era through the lens of Kimberlé Crenshaw's intersectionality perspective. International Journal of Multicultural Studies, 5(2), 271–281. https://doi.org/10.30984/kijms.v5i2.1252
Oyeleye, O. A. (2022). Feminist Postproverbial as a Panacea for Decolonising African Feminist Scholarship. Journal of Higher Education in Africa, 20(1), 85-106. https://doi.org/10.57054/jhea.v20i1.2188
Porter, E. J. (1991). Women and moral identity. Oxford University Press.
Rawat, P. S. (2014). Patriarchal beliefs, women's empowerment, and general well-being. Vikalpa, 39(2), 43-56.
Reshi, I. A., & Sudha, D. T. (2022). Women Empowerment: A Literature Review [Review of Women Empowerment: A Literature Review]. International Journal of Economic Business Accounting Agriculture Management and Sharia Administration (IJEBAS), 2(6), 1353–1359. https://doi.org/10.54443/ijebas.v2i6.753
Rice, C., Harrison, E., & Friedman, M. (2019). Doing justice to intersectionality in research. Cultural Studies Critical Methodologies, 19(6), 409-420. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532708619829779
Robertson, D. (1993). The Penguin dictionary of politics (2nd ed.). Penguin Books.
Salem, S. (2013). Feminist critique and Islamic feminism: The question of intersectionality. The Postcolonialist, 1(1), 1-8.
Shahbazi, S. (2018). Decolonial Feminist Epistemologies of Border crossing: A Comparative Study of Transnational Iranian and Iraqi Women’s Life Writing. Retrieved Oct 9, 2025, from https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/2123/20411/1/Shahbazi_sh_thesis.pdf
Shami, Q., Ijaz, M., & Akhtar, Z. (2023). Attaining Women’s Agency: A Study of Women’s Repression in Women’s Memoir Writing. Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 31(2), 84–96.
Sharama, N. (2020). Feminist Literature as a Catalyst for Social Change: Examining Institutional Oppression and Maternal Resilience in English Literature. International Journal of English and Studies, 2(7), 99–105. https://www.ijoes.in
Sharma, B., & Tyagi, S. R. (2025). A Study of Women Oppression and Injustice in Indian Theatre. International Research Journal of Multidisciplinary Scope, 6(1), 315–323. https://doi.org/10.47857/irjms.2025.v06i01.02501
Shukri, A. M., & Owoyemi, M. Y. (2016). The origin, development and diversity of Islamic feminism: A historical review. MALIM: Jurnal Pengajian Umum Asia Tenggara, 17, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.17576/malim-2016-1701-01
Singh, R. (2019). Gender and Middle-East: An intersectionality perspective. English Linguistics Research, 8(2), 10–16. https://doi.org/10.5430/elr.v8n2p10
Sultana, A. (2010). Patriarchy and women’s subordination: a theoretical analysis. Arts Faculty Journal, 36, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.3329/afj.v4i0.12929
Tuttle, L. (1987). Encyclopedia of feminism. Pantheon Books.
Walby, S. (1989). Theorising Patriarchy. Sociology, 23(2), 213–234. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038589023002004
Zubair, S., & Zubair, M. (2017). Situating Islamic feminism(s): Lived religion, negotiation of identity and assertion of third space by Muslim women in Pakistan. Womens Studies International Forum, 63, 17–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2017.06.002
