SAC presents: Afsar Mohammad

Afsar Mohammad, Lecturer, Department of Asian Studies, University of Texas at Austin

“History is My Story!”: Women’s Devotional Narratives in South Indian Sufism

“For you history is history, for me it’s my story and I find relief in telling my own story when I tell this history of pirs,” said 75-year old Saidamma. During the month of Muharram, when women devotees hold their own story and dance performances, Saidammanever misses the occasion. She considers that her moment and the entire history of Karbala becomes her autobiography! This presentation seeks to capture that specific moment of women’s story-telling and their interpretations of Islamic history by examining various autobiographical narrative strategies that women story-tellers use in telling stories of martyrs, Sufi saints and local deities.

Sponsored by the Department of Religion, and the South Asia Center at the Moynihan Institute of Global affairs.