This study examines the representation of Muslim women in Orhan Pamuk’s novel Snow and E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India with an aim to explore the image of Muslim women in western and westernized modern fiction. Through a descriptive analysis, the two novels are critically examined to expose the orientalist hidden agenda behind the representation of Muslim women in modern fiction written in the early part of the twentieth century and the postmodern fiction written at the beginning of the twenty-first century. This study aims to provide a deep examination of the constant adoption of the orientalist discourse by analyzing the long Western tendency to orientalize and stereotype Muslim women. The research shows clearly how the representation of Muslim women has not changed over centuries as they are portrayed in western literatures as oppressed, subhuman, submissive, sensual and even recently as violent and terrorist. The research is organized into five chapters. Chapter One is an introduction to the research that introduces the research statement and objectives and presents an overview of the representation of Muslim women in western literatures throughout centuries. Chapter Two sets the theoretical framework of the study and presents a review of some related literature. Chapter Three examines the representation of Muslim women in Forster’s A Passage to India as a study case of the early modern western literature. Chapter Four presents a detailed critical analysis of the representation of Muslim women in Pamuk’s Snow as a study case of the westernized modern literature written under the spell of secularism. The last chapter shows the research findings and offers a summary and concluding remarks coupled with recommendations and suggestions for future research.
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