CANVAS AND CAGE: AESTHETIC RESISTANCE ANDTHE POLITICS OF DOMESTIC SPACE IN HAIDER’SA WOMAN ON A SUITCASE

Abstract

This research paper demonstrates that Shazaf Fatima Haider’s A Woman on a Suitcase exposes the South Asian joint family not as a sanctuary, but as a panopticon designed to surveil and curtail female subjectivity. While recent scholarship has analyzed Seema Hyderi’s political reclamation of autonomy from postcolonial patriarchy, this study pivots to the domain of aesthetics. It argues that painting and visual observation are not merely hobbies, but "counter-spatial" tools that facilitate Seema's exit from the patriarchal "cage." This research draws on ecofeminist critiques of the "violence of extraction" to examine the domestic sphere. Here, female vitality is "mined" to maintain family status. The paper contrasts the "manicured" existence of characters like Muneera—likened to a stunted bonsai —with Seema’s artistic production of "wild roses" equipped with thorns. By painting, Seema actively resists the "pruning" of her identity. Furthermore, this research utilizes an existentialist framework regarding the "burden of choice" to interpret spatial mobility. It contrasts Seema’s acceptance of agency with the "bad faith" of characters who remain domestically confined. While Muneera surrenders to the role of a victim, Seema uses the "canvas" to reclaim her physical and psychological space. Ultimately, this paper posits that true freedom in Haider’s narrative is achieved only when the female gaze turns away from the male subject and reorients itself onto the canvas of the exterior world.