Breaking the Mortgage of Silence: Female Agency and the Critique of Subjugation in the Poetry of Aminul Islam
Mohammad Jashim Uddin,
Associate Professor,
Department of English,
Northern University Bangladesh,
Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Abstract: This research paper explores the poetry of
contemporary Bangladeshi poet Aminul Islam through a feminist critical lens,
arguing that his work constitutes a significant critique of female subjugation
and a nuanced exploration of female agency. The title, “Breaking the Mortgage
of Silence,” conceptualizes silence not as a void, but as a state of being
forcibly indebted to patriarchal structures. The paper posits that Islam’s
poetry examines the terms of this “mortgage” and illuminates the moments when
women strive to break it. Through a qualitative textual analysis of selected
poems, and by situating them within a theoretical framework of feminist and
postcolonial feminist literary criticism, this study investigates how themes of
oppression, resistance, and the complex performance of gender are articulated.
The analysis reveals a poetics that intertwines the domestic and the political,
linking patriarchal oppression to broader systems of control such as
colonialism and neoliberal capitalism. This study finds that by giving voice to
the silenced and questioning the foundational structures of patriarchal power,
Aminul Islam’s poetry offers a vital and complex contribution to contemporary
Bengali literature and gender discourse.
Keywords: Female Agency,
Feminist Criticism, Patriarchy and Gender, Postcolonial Literature, Poetic
Resistance
1. Introduction
Poetry, in its most potent form, serves as a crucible for social
critique, a space where the symbolic weight of language can dismantle
entrenched norms and give voice to the marginalized. In the rich literary
landscape of contemporary Bangladesh, the work of poet Aminul Islam has emerged
as a particularly compelling site for such an inquiry. While critics have
frequently and rightly lauded his unique linguistic style, his deep engagement
with nature and history, and his romantic sensibilities, a focused critical
analysis of his profound engagement with female subjectivity and the critique
of patriarchy has remained a relatively underexplored dimension of his oeuvre.
[Mahmud; Saleh, “The Language”] Celebrated for his “symbolic protest” and his
poetry’s deep-rootedness in the soil of Bengal, Islam’s work warrants a more
specific investigation into its gender politics. [Nasrin, “A Poet’s Prowess”]
This paper seeks to fill this critical lacuna.
The central thesis of this research is that Aminul Islam’s poetry offers
a sophisticated and sustained critique of the systemic subjugation of women. It
does so by portraying their state of silence and passivity not as an inherent
quality but as a mortgaged condition—an imposed, unwilling debt to a pervasive
patriarchal order. His poetry captures the complex, often subtle, ways in which
female agency emerges to challenge, negotiate, or break the terms of this
debilitating contract. This study merges a series of scholarly questions to
guide its inquiry: How does Islam utilize metaphors and imagery, particularly
those drawn from nature, economics, and politics, to depict the mechanisms of
female oppression? In what ways are the private, domestic spheres of female
experience connected to larger historical and political structures of power,
including colonialism and global capitalism? How do his poems portray the
performance of gender under the patriarchal gaze, and what forms of
resistance—both overt and covert—are available to the female subjects in his
work?
By exploring these questions, this paper aims to demonstrate that Aminul
Islam’s poetry is a vital site for understanding the nuances of gender
dynamics, power, and the enduring struggle for self-realization in a
postcolonial patriarchal society. His work challenges readers to look beyond
simplistic binaries, offering instead a complex portrait of oppression,
complicity, and the resilient, often explosive, power of the human spirit to
reclaim its voice.
2. Background of the Study
Aminul Islam (born 1963) rose to prominence as a significant voice in
the post-nineties literary scene of Bangladesh, a period marked by new
experiments in form and a renewed engagement with the nation’s socio-political
realities. His extensive body of work, comprising over twenty-four collections
of poetry and several books of prose and essays as of 2024, has solidified his
reputation as a major contemporary writer. [Shampa] His career is notable for
its dual nature; for thirty-five years, he served as a high-ranking government
official, a position that offered him a unique vantage point on the machinery
of the state. This experience undeniably informs his poetry, which is
characterized by a synthesis of romantic lyricism and a sharp, modern
sensibility. He often incorporates a unique lexicon drawn from administrative,
legal, digital, and everyday language, a style that critic Abu Afzal Saleh
notes, distinguishes him from his peers. [Saleh, “The Language”]
As a poet operating within the structures of the state, Islam has
navigated the complex terrain of artistic expression and official decorum. He
has confirmed in interviews that he often resorted to symbolism and allegory to
voice his critique of social and political injustices, a strategy that allowed
him to maintain his critical integrity while navigating professional
constraints. [Nasrin, “A Poet's Prowess”] This symbolic method is central to
understanding his critique of patriarchy.
His work has been recognized with numerous prestigious accolades,
including the IFIC Bank Sahitya Puraskar (2021) and the Kabikunja Padak (2021),
cementing his status in both Bangladesh and West Bengal. [Shampa] Critics have
applied various epithets to him, including “poet of symbolic protest,” “poet of
root-splendor,” and the “first poet of the digital age.” [Nasrin, “A Poet's
Prowess”] These titles point to a multifaceted poetic identity that is at once
deeply connected to Bengali heritage and keenly aware of global and
contemporary currents.
This study situates Islam’s work within the broader context of the feminist
movement in Bangladesh, which has a rich history tracing back to the early
20th-century activism of pioneers like Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain. This
tradition has fostered a long legacy of literary engagement with women's rights
and critiques of patriarchy. Aminul Islam’s poetry enters this vital discourse,
not always as an explicit feminist manifesto, but as a subtle, persistent, and
deeply empathetic questioning of the gendered status quo, making his
contribution both significant and worthy of scholarly attention.
3. Literature Review
A comprehensive review of existing criticism on Aminul Islam’s poetry
reveals several dominant threads of analysis, while simultaneously highlighting
a significant gap concerning a focused feminist reading of his work. The body
of criticism, largely in Bengali, has established his importance based on
formal innovation and thematic breadth, yet a systematic application of gender
theory remains absent.
A primary focus of critics has been Islam’s profound and multifaceted
engagement with nature and the riverine landscape of Bangladesh. Salah Uddin
Mahmud argues that this connection is not merely thematic but foundational to
his poetic identity, reflecting a “primal relationship” evident in numerous
book titles and verses. AlokBiswas extends this by describing Islam's poetic
world as a “universe of love” where the poet travels through the “physical,
non-physical elements of the world,” with his homeland's nature serving as a
primary source of his distinct sensibility.
Another major area of critical acclaim is Islam’s unique and innovative
use of language. Abu Afzal Saleh contends that Islam stands apart for his adept
and seamless integration of official, technical, and English words, forging a
new poetic diction that authentically reflects contemporary life. [Saleh, “The
Language”] Kazi Nasir Mamun concurs, noting that Islam avoids “mechanical
imposition” and that his “subject diversity,” enabled by his expansive
vocabulary, distinguishes him from the more formally constrained poetics of
many of his nineties contemporaries.
The theme of protest and social critique is widely acknowledged, though
often in general terms. Anis Muhmmad observes that Islam “sometimes wants to
make a poetic rebellion against the current social system, the state system and
the world system.” In an interview with Marrina Nasrin, Islam himself
elaborates on this, explaining that due to the constraints of his government
service, he has channeled his critiques of injustice into “symbolic” forms,
citing his poem “Shringkholito Kokiler Gaan” (The Song of the Chained Cuckoo)
as a prime example of this strategy. [Nasrin, “A Poet's Prowess”]
Perhaps the most discussed aspect of his work is love and romanticism.
Joana Jasmin, in a detailed article on his love poetry, calls him a “poet of
brilliant and audacious love,” whose conception of love is “free from cowardice
and above all kinds of smallness and triviality.” Crucially, she touches upon
the theme of female freedom within this romantic context, noting that the poet
encourages it with “utmost fascination.” However, this vital observation
remains a sub-point within a broader discussion of romantic love rather than a
central analytical focus.
Finally, while a short, unattributed piece titled “Aminul Islam’s Poetry:
Women, Gender, Patriarchy and Gender” correctly summarizes that his poetry
takes a strong stand against “stereotype ideas of the society towards women,”
it serves as a brief overview rather than an in-depth scholarly analysis.
Interviews with Hridoy Thakur and Farzana Naz Shampa provide further
confirmation from the poet himself, where he affirms his belief in “liberal
humanity” and his opposition to “gender discrimination.”
Despite this wealth of criticism, a sustained, theoretically-grounded
investigation into how Islam’s poetry deconstructs patriarchal norms and
represents female agency is missing. The existing literature acknowledges his
“protest” and “social critique,” but it does not systematically apply a
feminist framework to unpack the specific ways this critique manifests in
relation to gender.
4. Research Gap
The literature review demonstrates that while Aminul Islam’s work has
been examined from various angles—formal, thematic, and biographical—there is a
conspicuous absence of a dedicated study that applies feminist literary theory
to his oeuvre. No existing research has systematically analyzed his poetry to
understand how it articulates a critique of female subjugation, explores the
nuances of female agency, or conceptualizes the complex relationship between
patriarchy and other forms of oppression. The current research aims to address
this gap by providing the first in-depth, focused analysis of these themes in
his work, moving beyond general observations to a theoretically informed critique.
5. Research Objectives
The primary objectives of this research paper are:
1. To
analyze how Aminul Islam’s poetry uses metaphor, imagery, and symbolism to
critique patriarchal structures and the subjugation of women.
2. To
investigate the portrayal of female characters and voices, examining how their
agency (or lack thereof) is represented through overt and covert means.
3. To
explore the connection between domestic, gendered oppression and broader
political, colonial, and social power structures within the poems.
4. To
contribute a new, feminist-oriented perspective to the critical discourse on
Aminul Islam's work, thereby enriching the understanding of contemporary
Bangladeshi poetry.
6. Methodology of the Study
This study employs a qualitative research methodology centered on
rigorous textual analysis. The primary sources for this research are the
selected poems of Aminul Islam. Secondary sources include critical articles and
interviews, supplemented by foundational scholarly works on feminist literary
theory. The approach involves a close reading of the poems, focusing on
diction, imagery, metaphor, tone, and narrative voice to deconstruct their
meaning in relation to the research questions. The analysis is interpretive,
aiming to uncover the underlying ideologies and critiques embedded within the
poetic texts by placing them in dialogue with the chosen theoretical framework.
7. Theoretical Framework
This research is primarily grounded in Feminist Literary Criticism,
which examines how literature represents, perpetuates, and critiques
patriarchal power structures and the oppression of women. Central to this
framework is the analysis of how gender roles are socially constructed, the
exploration of female experiences that have been historically marginalized, and
the identification of forms of female resistance or agency, however subtle.
Thinkers like Elaine Showalter, with her classification of feminist critique
and “gynocriticism,” provide a basis for analyzing how a male poet depicts a
distinctly female world.
Furthermore, the study incorporates key tenets of Postcolonial Feminism.
This framework is particularly relevant for analyzing literature from a nation
like Bangladesh, as it investigates the critical intersection of colonialism
and patriarchy; a phenomenon often termed “double colonization.” Postcolonial
feminists like Chandra Talpade Mohanty and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak argue
that women in formerly colonized nations experience a compounded form of
oppression, subjugated by both the lingering structures of colonial power and
the indigenous patriarchal systems that often pre-dated or were reinforced by
colonialism. Spivak’s seminal question, “Can the Subaltern Speak?”, highlights
how colonized women are often doubly silenced, rendered voiceless in both
colonial and nationalist discourses. This dual framework is highly appropriate
for analyzing Islam’s poetry, especially a poem like “Porompora” (Tradition),
which explicitly links the internal patriarchal legacy of polygamy to the
British colonial “Divide and Rule” policy. This allows for a multi-layered
analysis of how power operates on both macro (political/colonial) and micro
(domestic/personal) levels in his work.
8. Critical Discussion
The selected poems of Aminul Islam serve as a fertile ground for a
feminist critique, revealing a deep and consistent engagement with the themes
of subjugation, silenced voices, and the complex struggle for agency. His work
moves beyond simple protest to dissect the very mechanisms of patriarchal
control.
The Mortgage of Silence in “Bondhok Dewa Din Raat” (Mortgaged Day and
Night)
The very title of this poem establishes the central metaphor of this
research paper. In Islam’s poetics, silence is not a passive absence but an
active, economic condition of debt. The female subject has been forced into a
transaction where her time, emotions, and voice are held as collateral. The
poem describes a subject—who can be read as both personified nature and a
woman—as an “obedient shadow and oxygen,” one who fulfills a “statutory duty.”
[Islam, “A Bunch of Poems by Aminul Islam”] This language, drawn from legal and
administrative fields, immediately frames her existence within a system of
binding, impersonal rules.
She is not watched by a benevolent creator, but by the “suspicion-loving
soldiers of the blind master.” [Islam, “A Bunch of Poems by Aminul Islam”] This
“blind master” is a powerful and chilling symbol of patriarchy: it is blind to
the true worth, interiority, and suffering of the one it controls, operating instead
through suspicion and surveillance. The subject's existence is consequently
“unevaluated,” her pain a “dormant volcano,” suggesting immense, suppressed
power that occasionally erupts, turning her into a “Java island.” [Islam, “A
Bunch of Poems by Aminul Islam”]
The most poignant expression of her subjugated agency comes in the
final, devastating lines: “But subordinate time keeps no schedule for Rumi’s
crying /She has mortgaged all her time into the hands of the blind master.”
[Islam, “A Bunch of Poems by Aminul Islam”] Here, the fundamental human freedom
to express emotion is denied; it is unscheduled, unacknowledged, and therefore
invalidated. This stands in stark contrast to the “promoted fake pictures of
crying” on social media that elicit easy sympathy. The woman is trapped in a
binding contract she did not author, her life and tears held as collateral for
a debt to a blind, unfeeling power. This metaphor of the mortgage powerfully
refutes any notion that female passivity is natural, recasting it as a
condition of economic and emotional servitude.
The Interlocking Oppressions in “Porompora” (Tradition)
This poem brilliantly demonstrates a key insight of postcolonial
feminist theory: the inextricable link between oppression in the domestic
sphere and the structures of colonial and state power. Islam begins by invoking
the history of “polygamous families”, a patriarchal institution that, while
statistically declining, has left behind a toxic cultural residue. He writes
with piercing insight: “The co-wife is gone but the jealousy and / fire, the
poison and disgust left by the co-wives hold the old kingdom.” [Islam, “A Bunch
of Poems by Aminul Islam”] This is not mere nostalgia; it is an analysis of an
inherited emotional structure of conflict and bitterness.
He then executes a crucial analytical leap, directly comparing this
domestic patriarchal legacy to the colonial one: “the way the British have left
behind / the conflict-ridden empire of their Divide and Rule policy.” [Islam,
“A Bunch of Poems by Aminul Islam”] This is a profound poetic articulation of
double colonization. Islam suggests that the tactics of subjugation—pitting
people against each other to maintain control—are fundamentally the same,
whether enacted by a colonial administrator over a nation or by a patriarchal
system within a family. The “boycott, bulldozer, and hate campaigns” of the
political world are mirrored by the “jealousy and fire” of the domestic one.
The poem concludes that this inherited poison infects everyone, becoming
as pervasive as “carbon dioxide in the air.” [Islam, "A Bunch of Poems by
Aminul Islam"] This transforms the issue from a personal failing into a
systemic, environmental crisis. By linking the intimate wounds of the family to
the grand historical wounds of empire, Islam performs a powerful feminist and
postcolonial critique, showing how structures of oppression are interlocking
and mutually reinforcing.
The Male Gaze and Complicit Love in “Tarporeo Tomake Bhalobashar Kotha
Mittha Noy” (And Yet, My Love for You is Not a Lie)
This poem offers a complex, uncomfortable, and deeply honest look at
love from a male perspective that is conscious of, yet ultimately complicit in,
patriarchy. The male narrator begins with a confession that frames his love
within a paradigm of harm: “I oppress you / the way I do / my own lungs /
kissing the lips of Benson & Hedges.” [Islam, “Three Poems”] This startling
simile equates his love with a self-destructive addiction, acknowledging its
oppressive quality from the outset.
He demonstrates awareness of systemic violence against women within his
own social circle, admitting, “I am also ashamed that my maternal cousin / had
raped your younger sister.” [Islam, “Three Poems”] This confession of proximity
to patriarchal violence makes his subsequent argument all the more problematic.
The poem’s core argument is a plea to separate his personal, idealized
“Eighth-Edward-like love” from these grim patriarchal realities. He asks
rhetorically, “but tell me, how can my love bear the responsibility for all
their deeds?” [Islam, “Three Poems”] This is a classic move of liberal
patriarchy: acknowledging the problem “out there” while carving out a personal,
emotional space that he insists is exempt from critique and responsibility.
The poem powerfully captures the woman's silenced experience of
performing femininity. He sees her “hiding the hatred in your two eyes / you
have to do a smiling handshake” with her lecherous boss. [Islam, “Three Poems”]
He recognizes her inner revulsion. Yet, despite this awareness, the poem’s
emotional climax is not a call to action or a promise of solidarity, but a
reassertion of the purity of his own feelings. He prioritizes the validation of
his own love, which he claims is a separate, sacrosanct kingdom where “no one
could create / India-Pakistan day-night.” [Islam, “Three Poems”] The critique
in this poem is masterful precisely because it is not delivered by a heroic,
enlightened narrator. Instead, the critique is the narrator. By exposing the
flawed logic, the self-interest, and the ultimate inadequacy of a supposedly
sensitive male lover, Islam provides a razor-sharp commentary on the profound
limitations of male empathy within an unchallenged patriarchal structure.
Violated Sanctuaries and the
Allegory of Fear
Other poems reinforce this critique through haunting allegories of
violation and fear. In “Kontrast Kalor” (Contrast Color), a “venomous snake,”
encouraged by the seemingly romantic moonlight, pours poison into the nest of a
lapwing. [Islam, “A Bunch of Poems by Aminul Islam”] This image of a natural,
domestic sanctuary—a nest—being insidiously violated by a creeping, encouraged
evil can be read as a powerful metaphor for the ways patriarchy poisons the
female sphere, often under the guise of romance or tradition.
In “Bagh Dhukeche Bagane” (A Tiger Has Entered the Garden), a carefully
tended garden, a space of female creativity, labor, and nurturing, is invaded
by a tiger. The tiger enters through overgrown bushes, a product of “our
fatigue or inattention.” [Islam, “A Bunch of Poems by Aminul Islam”] The
consequence is a life governed by fear. The inhabitants, presumably the women
who tend the garden, are now too scared to enjoy its “shade of peace” and
“delicious tastes,” concluding that “being deprived is safer.” [Islam, “A Bunch
of Poems by Aminul Islam”] This powerfully allegorizes how the constant threat
of male violence (the tiger) restricts women's freedom, shrinks their world,
and forces them into a state of self-imposed limitation and deprivation as a
survival strategy. The garden, once a source of joy, becomes a source of
anxiety. This is a profound commentary on how the architecture of fear shapes
female existence.
9. Research Findings
The critical analysis of Aminul Islam’s poetry, grounded in a feminist
and postcolonial framework, yields several key findings that significantly
advance the understanding of his work:
1. Patriarchy
as a System of Economic and Emotional Mortgage: Islam innovatively employs
economic and legal metaphors, particularly that of a “mortgage,” to define
female subjugation. This powerful conceptualization reframes silence,
obedience, and emotional suppression not as inherent or chosen female traits,
but as the debilitating terms of a coercive, binding contract with a “blind
master” (patriarchy). Women's time, emotions, and fundamental agency are
depicted as collateral in a transaction they did not consent to.
2. The
Intersectionality of Patriarchy and Colonialism: The poetry demonstrates a
sophisticated, intuitive understanding of what postcolonial feminists term
“double colonization.” It explicitly and allegorically links the internal,
domestic legacy of patriarchal practices with the external, political legacy of
colonialism (“Divide and Rule”), exposing them as analogous and mutually reinforcing
systems of control that leave behind an enduring, toxic inheritance of
conflict.
3. A
Nuanced Critique of the Male Gaze and Liberal Complicity: The poems do not
always feature a heroic, ideologically pure narrator. Instead, some of the most
potent critiques emerge from poems that unflinchingly expose the flawed logic
and self-serving nature of the “enlightened” male perspective. They highlight
how male love and empathy, however sincere, can be insufficient and even
harmful when they fail to challenge the structural privileges from which they
benefit.
4. The
Complex Representation of Suppressed and Eruptive Female Agency: Female agency
in the poems is often depicted in its suppression—seen in the forced smile, the
unscheduled tears, the silent endurance, and the fear that leads to
self-restriction. However, this suppression is not absolute. Islam portrays
this contained agency as a “dormant volcano,” suggesting immense power that,
when it finally breaks its silence, is disruptive, transformative, and
world-altering.
5. The
Primacy of Allegory and Symbolism as a Critical Tool: Islam consistently and
skillfully uses allegory, drawing from the rich well of nature (gardens, nests,
rivers) as well as contemporary socio-political realities, to critique gender
injustice. This symbolic method, which the poet himself has acknowledged as a
deliberate strategy, allows for a multi-layered and resonant critique that is
both artistically sophisticated and politically sharp.
10. Conclusion
This research has argued that the poetry of Aminul Islam, when read
through a feminist and postcolonial critical lens, offers a significant and
multifaceted critique of female subjugation. By moving beyond the established
critical focus on his romanticism, modernism, and linguistic innovation, this
paper has uncovered a deep, consistent, and compassionate engagement with the
mechanics of patriarchal power.
Aminul Islam’s work portrays the condition of women not as a natural
state, but as a “mortgage of silence”—a forced indenture to a blind, unfeeling
patriarchal order. His poems deconstruct this condition with intellectual rigor
and poetic grace, linking it to larger political oppressions like colonialism,
exposing the subtle complicity of the liberal male gaze, and giving symbolic
form to the suppressed agency and volcanic pain of the subjugated. Through
powerful metaphors and searing allegories, he breaks the very silence he
critiques, forcing the reader to confront the uncomfortable and often insidious
realities of gendered power dynamics.
While he may be a “romantic poet,” his romanticism does not exist in a
vacuum; it is a vision often set against a backdrop of profound injustice, a
love that strains against the chains of a patriarchal world. In this context,
his poetry transcends mere aesthetic achievement to become a vital act of
social commentary. “Breaking the Mortgage of Silence” reveals Aminul Islam as a
crucial voice in contemporary Bengali literature, one who challenges readers to
rethink the legacies of power, to recognize the intersections of the personal
and the political, and to hear the profound truths in the voices that have for
too long been silenced. His work enriches not only the poetic landscape of
Bangladesh but also the global conversation on gender, power, and the unyielding
human quest for freedom.
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