Abstract

The narrative ‘Threading my Prayer Rug’ highlights the condition of the character named Biya in her journey to becoming an American Muslim from a Pakistani Muslim. This research has presented the complexity of home for the Pakistani diaspora by using the diasporic paradigm of the post-colonial perspective. It has aimed to identify the concept of plurality of home and the problems of unhomeliness. By utilizing Uehara (2007) model of narrative analysis, this research claims that the diaspora’s attempt of making their multiple homes have shattered altogether after the incident of 9/11 and diaspora have faced the problem of unhomeliness. The narrative rejects the fixity of the concept of home as the characters in the narrative have attempted to create a blended identity by considering both Pakistan and America as their homes. This unhomeliness makes the diaspora reunite with their first home for their recognition and reconciliation; henceforth, the home of the Pakistani diaspora in Pakistan only.

Key Words

Home, Belongingness, Plurality, Diaspora, Unhomeliness, Multi-Belongingness and Hybridity

Introduction

Home is the place of belongingness, where a person lives permanently.  It provides a sense of satisfaction, comfort and security. It’s a place where a person attempts to see opportunities in his life in future. The home provides a collection of memories for a person, including memories of happiness and grief. It is regarded as a place where a person feels to do anything without having a fear of judgment. This research presents different notions of home in Sabeeha Rehman’s memoir ‘Threading my Prayer Rug.’ Sabeeha Rehman is a diaspora writer and Pakistani Muslim who migrated to America after her marriage to an American doctor. She also started her carrier as a Hospital Administrator in America.  She attempts to create a space for Pakistanis and Muslims in the form of building community centers, mosque and creating interfaith dialogue. The memoir also presents a character in the form of Biya, who shares her experiences after migrating to America with her husband. Biya goes through different stages in regard to her identity. At the first stage of her life, she adopts American culture, and after the birth of her son, she constructs her cultural and religious identities according to American culture.  The memoir majorly focuses on the transformation of Pakistani Muslim to American Muslim and also raises the issues faced by the diaspora. This research challenges the fixed and plural notions of home. It highlights a complex situation of the diaspora in terms of their notion of home. It propagates that diasporas have a strange sense of homes. In the beginning, the narrative offers the notion of plurality and multi-belonging of home. It highlights the problem that within the diaspora, the problem of multiple homes and unhomeliness also goes side- by-side.  Diaspora who consider both homeland and host landas their home split between two places and face the problem of unhomeliness. In short, this research aims to highlight the concept of multiple homes and to highlight the problem of unhomeliness in the memoir ‘Threading my Prayer Rug.

Literature Review

This research uses post-colonial lenses for the analysis of the memoir named ‘Threading my Prayer Rug.’   Before embarking on the particular paradigm within the post-colonial perspective, which has taken for this study, it is necessary to elaborate first what post-colonialism is and what post-colonial theory is?  According to Ashcroft (2002), post-colonialism is the time period after colonialism and after the departure of imperial powers.  He differentiates colonialism and post-colonialism as the time period before and after independence. By broadly defining the post-colonial term, he also adds the writing and culture within this time frame in defining the post-colonial period and argues that post-colonial also indicates the national writing of a colonial society after independence and cultures effected through colonization are also included in the post-colonial term.  However, post-colonial literature is also written against European writings. Ashcroft also elaborates European writings written for post-colonial people, as “they inevitably privileged the center, emphasizing; ‘home’ over ‘the native’, ‘metropolitan’ over the ‘province’ or ‘colonial” (P. 18). Similarly, the post-colonial theory has also originated after European theory, which universalizes their particular notions of language, value system and believes over post-colonial societies as well. Post-colonial theory, hence, rejects Europeans universalized nature of knowledge that emerged in the form of theories. Post-colonial theorists theorize the after-effects of colonialism and present post-colonial people and society distinct from the depiction of European universalization. They also unveil Europeans universalized perspective and put forward their own perspectives towards their own place.

Among Post-colonial theorists such as Edward Saeed, Bhabha and Spivak, Saeed is considered as the father of post-colonial theory, as his contribution in 1978 in the form of ‘Orientalism’ develops the theory of post-colonialism. Saeed (1978) describes the theory of Orientalism as, “Orientalism is the western style for dominating, restructuring and having authority over the orientalist” (P. 3). He introduces the concept of orient and occident as East and West, respectively. Orientalism is, therefore, the occident’s stereotypical discourse regarding orient for developing a relationship of hegemony, domination and power. Orientalism, however, provides an understanding to manipulate and control the world created by occidents regarding orients. Spivak (1998) has introduced another issue in post-colonial theory by presenting the concept of subaltern class. Ashcroft and Griffiths (2013) argue that the concept of the subaltern is first introduced by Antonio Gramsci for referring to such groups who are under the hegemony of ruling body. Such definition of subaltern includes people from the working and peasant class. However, the idea of Spivak in ‘Can the Subaltern Speak’ is, “Theirs is subalterns lack of access to institutional language… there’s European theorist’s sense that he knows that what the subaltern will say” (P. 20). Such notion of subaltern provides the notion of silence and suppression. Europeans theorists, according to Spivak, consider themselves as representatives of the subaltern class, and subaltern class owing to their low status, remain unable to spread their voices, and their misrepresentation is provided through Europeans.    

Another prevalent theme in a post-colonial study is the concept of diaspora.  Etymologically the term diaspora has been originated from the Greek word “dia”, which means through”, and “speirein” which means “scattered.” It collectively means the displacement of people from their original land to a new one. According to Cohen (2008), in 1960, the term diaspora was used for the classical diaspora, which includes the dispersion of people belonging from Greece, Africa and Armenia; moreover, such diaspora is related to the experiences of the Jewish diaspora because of their history of forced migration.  Shuval (2000, P. 41) claims that in the 1980s, the term started defining large emigrational experiences of immigrants, political refugees, expellees, alien residents, ethno-racial minorities, transnational linguistic and religious communities. Safran’s (1991, P. 83) definition of diaspora majorly focuses on homeland orientation and excludes other aspects of diaspora. Safran’s model of diaspora proposes diaspora as a subject for people, who are dispersed from the homeland, maintain the memory of the homeland, preserve boundaries for host land, prefer their support for the homeland, desire to return to the homeland and relate themselves with homeland (Safran’s, 1991 P. 83-84). This model for a homeland in diaspora presents the concept of territorial homeland, where the notion of homeland is fixed, absolute and unidimensional in response to this absolute notion of home theorists such as Homo. K Bhabha (1997) and Stuart Hall (1990) have highlighted flaws in Safran’s definition. They have enforced that diasporic people are focusing on remaking and recreating of home, trying to ensure their life quality in both present and future and do not have the desire to return to their homeland. Moreover, the notion of diaspora presented in this research puts forward the complex nature of the diasporic subject, such as hybrid and multiple notions of home, feelings of unhomeliness and transformational diasporic experiences for the second and third generation. 




Theoretical Framework 

This research attempts to analyze the memoir from a post-colonial perspective. It uses two theoretical frameworks for answering two questions of research.  For the first question, the researcher has used Robin Cohen concept of deterritorialized home. In the book ‘Global Diaspora’ (2008), Robin Cohen has provided a progressive approach to the diaspora.  He provides the concept of a liquid home. According to this concept, people are displaced from one place to another, start recreating their culture and try to integrate themselves for achieving prosperity. In such a situation, they refer to their adopted host land as their homeland. In his concept of diaspora, he claims that subjects have an attachment to the people, culture and traditions of their first homeland and have a notion of distant homeland as a base for their community. This raises the possibility of multiple homelands and provides a blurred boundary between the homeland and host land. For the second question, the researcher has used the Bhabha concept of unhomeliness. By providing the definition of unhomeliness in the book ‘The location of Culture’, Bhabha says that subject’s encounter feelings of estrangement while living at their home. Being unhomeliness is a situation when subjects feel estrangement at their own home. It is considered as a sense when subjects consider themselves lonely at their home. They are torn between different cultures and become a psychological refuge having no place for taking refuge. 

Data Analysis Method

The memoir “Threading my Prayer Rug” is written in first-person narration. The researcher has analyzed the narrative of the memoir. For that purpose, Uehara (2007) model of analyzing personal narrative has been used. Uehara (2007) has analyzed the narratives of Cambodian Americans, who survived from the killing field. According to Uehara (2007), “In telling stories, people must narrate, who they were in the previous world and who they became in the light of social change, while still managing coherent and positive identity.” The model proposes some of the features of conflict narrative, such as the characters narrate their life spend in the previous place, the way their identities have changed because of social change, meanings of experiences in the life and situation of characters and the significance of their attempts regarding their resettlement.  The model is suitable for the memoir written by diaspora writer because diaspora also moves from one place to another; they also face social change with the change in society. They also narrate their experiences regarding their attempts towards their settlement in the new place.




Analysis

The narrative of the memoir ‘Threading my Prayer Rug’ is comprised of five parts.   All the parts describe different phases of the life of the character Bia. The narrative begins with the description of an arranged marriage of Sabeeha in Pakistan. The narrative mentions the description of a Pakistani home; the marriage ceremony is taken place according to Pakistani culture.  The narrative then shifts towards the situation of the character in America. Sabeeha, in the beginning, enters into a confusing situation where her Pakistani identity does not coincide with American values. Finally, the narrative mentions the adaptability of American values by Sabeeha. However, after the birth of Saqib, the eldest son of Sabeeha, the narrative provides the story of reconstructing Muslim communication in America. At this stage, Sabeeha attempts to reconcile with the Pakistani culture and religion of Islam. The narrative ends with the situation, where the characters mentioned in the memoir have created the identity of American Muslim and has considered America as their home. Moreover, the narrative describes the storyline of three generations. The first generation, who is Pakistani in their origin, faces confusion because of their transition from Pakistan to American culture. The birth of the second generation is basically the birth of   Islam and Pakistani culture in America. The birth of the third generation presents the new identity of Pakistani Americans in the form of American Muslims.  The whole narrative is, therefore, the transition from Pakistani to American Muslims. The narrative analysis of this research is divided into four parts, such as narrating life in the first place, change in identities because of social change, the effect of experiences in the life of characters and the significance of their settlement. 




Narrating Life of First Place

 The narrative describes the life of Sabeeha in the setting of Pakistan and in America both. In the setting of Pakistan, the narrative is related to Sabeeha’s life before her marriage and settlement in America. This part mentions Sabeeha’s home before her marriage. Being a member of Pakistani society, Sabeeha is expected to be respectful as it is necessary for a boy and girl to belong from a respectable family for availing the prospect of marriage. The narrative mentions that in Pakistani society, the general questions for the boy and girl are “What is the boy’s profession? What is the family background? …  that was always the standard question parents asked about prospective husbands for their daughters” and “she should belong from a good family… educated and white-skinned” (P. 10). Throughout her life in Pakistan, her reputation is protected in different events and situations, such as advice from the father before attending college, advice from an uncle, advice from father, foreboding her to go in front of stranger and advice from father-in-law after marriage.  Her husband Khalid also belongs from a respectable family, as all siblings have the utmost respect for each other, and her grandfather advised both to be respectable to each other. The importance of doing respect in the Pakistani setting and within the initial part of the narrative proves that the family life of Pakistan and the unity of home is based on the values of mutual respect and hospitality. 

In the narrative, Sabeeha says, “I saw the rooftops descending my home being pulled away” (P. 45).  After marriage, Sabeeha is expected to live in America; her first complexity of home begins with the loss of home, loss of culture and the loss of respect and hospitality.  In a new home, she realizes that neighbor child calls her husband Khalid with his first name, and people send their old parents to old houses. She decides not to be old in America and not to create a home in America. She also encounters difficulty in making herself and her culture understood by the people of a new place, as she says, “I didn’t want to explain my customer I wanted to share them. I didn’t want to make these friends understand, I wanted to be understood” (P. 59). These quotations reveal that Sabeeha has encountered inquiries from the people of new place regarding her identity, her culture and her home, as she is asked by one of her friend in America that “where are you from” (P. 51) and as she mentions Pakistan, she is inquired “where is that” (P. 51). Through such inquiries, she and her identity being a Pakistani and Muslim is insulted.  She is resultantly tired of making people understand the appropriateness of Pakistani culture and values.  For instance, she is questioned that how Pakistani women rely on their parents regarding their marriage. 

The issues mentioned in the previous paragraph results in her longing for Pakistan, where her culture and values are understood, and she is not questioned regarding her values and customs.  Her longing for her lost home, tradition, language and culture is evident through her longing for her Pakistani way of life, such as; in Pakistan, she is assisted in her chores with the help of a house assistant, cook and made, but at the new place, she herself has to do everything.  However, longing for the family gathering of the religious events such as Eids and social events such as marriages also become hurdle at the first stage, to adopt the new place as home as Sabeeha says, “I longed for the freedom to speak in Urdu” (P. 59) and “no more Orangzab to buy groceries; no more Razia to cook dinner” (P. 46). However, the loss of the comfortable life of Pakistan, cultural values of Pakistan and language also resists diasporas to make their home in a new place, and they consider the culture, values and language of the adopted land awkward for themselves. Such behavior endorses the view of a strong connection of such people with their native land, where their values and concepts are already shared culturally and religiously, while new place questions on their belongings. Sabeeha being a part of a diaspora community, also attempts to stick to her British English accent, which also adds to her attachment to Pakistan. Cohen (2008), P.11) has rejected such notion of diaspora, which is -according to Cohen’s himself- proposed by Soysal (2000). Soysal (2000) mentions, “the primary orientation and attachment of diasporic population is their homelands and cultures, and their claims and practices arise from this homebound ethnic orientation” (P. 2-3). The part of the narrative analyzed above presents the same situation, where the character has her attachment solely towards her homeland. Contrastingly, Cohen, in response to such approach, says, “homebound desires and losses thus obscuring the new typography and practices of citizenship, which are multi-connected, multi-referential and post-national” (P. 11)




Transformational Cultural Identities through Social Change

Besides these complexities, in making a new place like home, the narrative also shifts the topic from not making home to making a home. The character Sabeeha eventually makes America her home by adopting American culture. As the narrator describes that “I am falling in love with America. I won’t be swept away…  and I end up marrying America” (P. 55).   At this stage, by proclaiming in love with America, Sabeeha proclaims America as her home.   Calling America a new home, however, does not mean that the characters discussed in the narrative have left their old home, which is Pakistan. Their love for their new home also coincides with their love for their old home, which has elaborated in the latter part of the analysis (see section 4.1.3). However, at this stage, it can be said that they have plural notions of home for both places America and Pakistan.  The notion of merrymaking with America provides the clue that her notions regarding America have changed.  Her love for America is her love towards American values, which the narrative idealizes.  These values include the absence of corruption, clean life without pollution, the culture of honesty and the availability of all commodities of life.

Sabeeha, after getting a job at a hospital as an administrator, adopts American culture and its way of life, and her job is the major cause of her transformational personality. She transforms herself from Pakistani to American. Her first step for adopting American culture begins with adopting American dresses and joining American parties at the workplace and social places. At this stage, the narrative mentions the dual personality of Sabeeha as she shifts among Pakistani and American culture in Pakistani and American gathering.  The narrative mentions that at this stage, she is comfortable with her new home, but she still encounters the absence of her Pakistani culture in her personality and life, which is dominant by American culture.  There are frequent instances where the character remembers Pakistani culture and longs for Pakistani events of Eids, Pakistani food, Pakistani gathering, Pakistani way of hospitality, Pakistani dresses and Pakistani people. As the narrative describes the life of Sabeeha, “In those early years as I reeled from cultural shock, spun around in dizzying confusion, I felt my identity slipping away” (P. 52). The character faces the problem of transformational identity, and the narrative also highlights different notions regarding identity at different times; for instance, in the beginning, Sabeeha rejects the American way of life, and after getting the job, she adopts the American way of life. At the same time, she also longs for the Pakistani way of life and eventually attempts to create Pakistani culture in America. 

The birth of the second generation changes the discourse of narrative towards the new dimension. It once again shows the confused state of mind of Sabeeha as she wants her children to respect and understand their Pakistani culture while living in America. She mentions, “their cultural clock is ticking. They are American, no matter what.  But if we don’t make a deliberate, strategic effort, they will never know what they miss” (P. 131). In the narrative, the characters have a strong connection with their native home as Pakistan. Sabeeha also revives Pakistani culture, food, and music in America, in the form of making communication by collecting Pakistani families together.  Through such attempts, she does not reject the values of her new house at entirety, but she also intends her children to adopt a blended identity comprised of American and Pakistani values, as she pays frequent visits to her children, Saqib and Asim, to Pakistan, so that they know their roots, even her children also consider Pakistan as their base and Saqib spends a year in Pakistan to know his roots. Such attachment and link towards the first place is given by Tölölyan (2000) and adopted by Cohen. As he insists that attachment to place has crucial importance for the understanding of concepts and diasporas approves pluralistic and multicultural world (P. 11). In this narrative, Sabeeha also mentions, “They also got the best of both worlds the Pakistani values of hospitality, respect for elders… American values of discipline, punctuality… civic-mindedness and the work ethic” (P. 129). Therefore, it can be said that the boundaries of homes in this narrative are a blur because the characters have affection towards both America and Pakistan and their values. Such attachment to values of both homes, America and Pakistan, reminds the concept of ambivalence and hybridity presented by Bhabha. Bhabha argues that “colonial discourse is compelled to be because it never really wants colonial subjects to be exact replicas of the colonizers” (P. 87). The narrative also presents characters who does not agree to adopt the culture of a particular home at its full.




Experiences in the Life and Situation of Characters Mentioned in the Narrative

As mentioned above that the narrative shifts the discourse into different dimensions by mentioning different experiences and notions of characters.  These include the notion of not making home to making the home and eventually by adopting the blended and plural notion of home, such as considering both places as home. For that purpose, Sabeeha has revived both Pakistani values and religion, Islam, into America. For teaching Islam and Pakistani culture to her children, she has attempted in formulating communities and religious and cultural institutions on the basis of religion and culture. The most significant experience which moves the discourse of the narrative into a new direction was the incident of 9/11 when World Trade Center was attacked. The incident affects the situation and life of the characters mentioned in the narrative, where American’s considers Muslims as perpetrators for the World Trade Center attacks, and the narrative portrays the different lifestyle of Pakistani Muslims. The incident affected characters because of their names, which coincides with the names of terrorists as Saqib and Umar. Both characters Saqib and his son Umar -who suffers from Autism- encounters special scrutiny as professional terrorists at the airport. Umar has faced such consequences at the age of eight years in 2010.  The difference in the dates of the 9/11 incident and Umar encounters with scrutiny on 27th January 2010 reveals that the characters, even after a long time of ten years, still come across with the problem of being called a terrorist. Moreover, being a Muslim, the country which they considered their home had closed its doors against them, as Saqib and Umar delay their flights because of strict scrutiny imposed by their names.







Significance of Attempts Regarding Settlement 

In section (4.1.2), the narrative mentions the plural concept of home, where both places are considered as home.  The instances of such dual belongingness are, “I had lost contacts with most of my friends from home etc.” (P. 203). And “I came home… hijabs were off, beards shaved” (P. 188). The first quotation refers to the Pakistani home, and the subsequent second quotation mentioned above refers to the home in America. Therefore, it can be argued that, even after the incident of 9/11, these characters still consider both places as their home.   But the incidents directly affect their life and the very notion of their home; after incidents, the characters in the narrative face hate and rage from American, as they say,” we don’t want you here” (P. 3) and “go back to where you came from” (P. 3). These are the responses that the characters mentioned in the narrative faced in America—their home, being a Pakistani and Muslim. This reveals that their intentions of making America their home has shattered, and their efforts for appropriating their home –America, for themselves, by adopting Pakistani values and culture along with religion has gone in vain.  They eventually encounter the feeling of estrangement at the place which they consider their home. 

Through such circumstances, they have come to the stage from where they have started their journey in America. As mentioned in the initial part of the narrative that Sabeeha is asked about her belongingness when she arrived in America, and even after forty-four years living in America, she is asked the same question. The question “where are you from” (P. 52) reveals that she is not accepted in her new home, and her new home looks foreign to her. On the other side, by living in America for a long span of time, in Pakistan, she has given the status of American. As she hesitates for using asbestos –a fire-proof material used for plating iron and also causes lung cancer- during ironing, her mother says, “Oh, you Americans, you are afraid of everything” (P. 204). This labelling of being American by her mother reveals that Sabeeha has lost her Pakistani identity and belongingness. Henceforth, her notion of considering Pakistan as her home has also shattered.  Therefore, in America, she is considered a foreigner, and in Pakistan, she is considered American. Such rejection from both places makes the characters mentioned in the narrative strangers at both places, and they do not get their home at any place. This leads to the reversal of their journey. As Bhabha (2004) claims, “the ‘unhomely’ provides ‘non-continuous problematic that traumatizes the ambivalent structure of the civil state, as it draws the paradoxical boundaries between the private and the public” (P. 15). However, the narrative also draws boundaries of the characters in their homes, where they are considered as foreign. 

 The narrative begins Sabeeha’s journey by having close connections with her Pakistani friends before her marriage; after arriving in America, her connection with friends gradually fades away. In 1972, during her initial life in America, she had a bond with friends as she says, “I had Pakistani friends…we would chat daily on the phone” (P. 60).  Soon after facing the circumstances of 9/11, such as hatred, rage and rejection, the narrative moves towards her reunion with Pakistani friends, as “I had lost contact with most of my friends from home… we found friends we thought we had lost forever” (P. 203). Therefore, the feeling of estrangement moves the topic of the narrative towards reunion and reconciliation with the first home. Such connection results in Sabeeha and her husband’s movement from America to Pakistan in 2015 for meeting with friends and relatives. Both of them does not even cancel their trip when their sons and grandsons insist that Pakistan is not safe. Therefore, for both of them, their first place is important. Bhabha also provides the same notion of relocation of home in his work of 1994 by defining unhomeliness as “the ‘unhomeliness,’ the estranging sense of the relocation of the world…  that is the condition of extra-territorial and cross-cultural initiation” (P. 9).

To sum up, the memoir ‘Threading my Prayer Rug’  presents the complex nature of home. The narrative shifts its course of discussion from three different notions of home.  Firstly, home is associated with the birthplace, which is accepted culturally by inculcating cultural values.  The character of Sabeeha also adopts the cultural values of Pakistan and lives her life within the boundaries of culture. Soon after marriage, she is torn between her cultural values and the culture of the new place, which entirely looks foreign to her. This mentions the confusing part of the narrative, where the character longs for her lost home and things associated with her lost home. It also enters the characters into the situation of trauma, where she does not bother to accept living in a new place—America.  The narrative at this stage also highlights the issue of cultural conflicts, as Sabeeha is questioned by American friends regarding her culture, values and belongings. This leads to her strong attachment to Pakistani values, and she does not even intend to change her accent, but such notion of American home without transformed identity does not remain for a long time. Therefore, eventually, according to the narrative, she is possessed by American values and decides to make America her home. It also leads to the conflicting state that on one side the decision of making America new home has taken, but at the same time the longing of Pakistani gathering, language is also there, which confuses the character and she wants a community where her identity and language is shared because at this part of narrative American accent and gathering looks foreign to her. 

With the change of her situation from housewife to a working lady, she appropriates her personality according to the available circumstances. This contrasts with her new identity, which is embedded in the culture and lifestyle of America. It once again highlights her confusing situation because she laments by transforming her personality and lifestyle. It also presents her internal conflict, which forces her to change her personality, specifically her dressing in different gatherings, such as American and Pakistani. The narrative gives a new dimension by the growth of Sabena’s sons. She also gets a consciousness that her sons may not be affected by her dual identity in different gathering as she is dominantly affected by American culture. This conflict forces her to revive Pakistani culture at her new home.  At this stage of the narrative, she becomes satisfied, and her internal conflict by not adopting American values at their full is resolved by reviving Pakistani culture and by forming communities on the basis of religious and cultural lines. Such narrative constructed by minimizing complex conflicts of home and belonging provides a dual notion of homes in the form of Pakistan and America, and a new home is created by appropriating the culture, which is a blend of Pakistani and American values. Through such efforts, the notion of a dream home in America has created, and the bond with the native home is also maintained.

However, the incident of 9/11 pushes the narrative towards another complexity, where the character’s encounter hatred in their new home. Their satisfactory life is disturbed, and their efforts in adopting and appropriating their new home go in vain. This moves the characters into another conflict that they are not only rejected by their new home but also by their original home, which labelled them as Americans. However, it can be said that their dual notion of home transformed into dual rejection. Such a situation in the narrative moves the character of Sabeeha and her husband to reunite with their original home as their journey of making home has reversed, and they have decided to reconcile with their original home. 

Conclusion

The Memoir ‘Threading my Prayer Rug’ is a woman’s journey from Pakistani Muslim towards American Muslim. The narrative describes different perspectives of the woman’s journey named as Sabeeha. This research looks at the memoir by employing diasporic paradigm of post-colonial perspective. It attempts to present a complex idea of home for Pakistani migrants. It directly rejects the fixed concept of home and also, implicitly rejects the plural concept of home by considering the contemporary situation of 9/11.  The research has been conducted by setting the objectives of identifying the concept of multiple homes and by identifying the problems of unhomeliness.  It uses Robin Cohen (2008) concept of ‘plurality of home’ and Bhabha’s perspective of ‘unhomeliness.’ However, by analyzing the narrative using Uehara (2007) model of narrative analyses, the research claims that the notion of home for Pakistani diaspora is complex and diaspora’s attempts of multiple homes has shattered and they have arrived into the situation of unhomeliness because of 9/11 incident. The research has found that the characters mentioned in the memoir in the form of diaspora community have faced many instances of confused situation, which does not match with their own ideas and values. The narrative rejects fixity of home by transforming Biya’s perspective of not making America her home to making America her home. At this situation of multiple homes, the narrative presents a character, who creates a blended and hybrid identity, which has affection towards both American values and Pakistani values and culture. The narrative attempts of constructing Pakistani based cultural and religious communities in American setting for her blended identity has ended in vain, when the characters mentioned in the narrative has faced rage and hatred of Americans for themselves. Hence, the concept of multiple homes ends with the situation of unhomeliness, when they are not recognized by the people of their first home and are rejected by the people of their second home. Such changing notion of home, moves diasporas towards confused situation, which is occupied by conflicts in the form of their recognition. This situation of unhomeliness forces Pakistani diaspora to have their reunion and reconciliation towards their first home Pakistan. 

References