Eco-Cultural and Gender Sustainability in Indigenous Women’s Poetry: The Case of Habba Khatoon

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-615-4_17How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Feminism; Patriarchy; Gender Oppression; Translation Studies; Cultural Sustainability

Abstract

Habba Khatoon, originally named Zoon, was a sixteenth-century Kashmiri poet and singer whose life and poetry embody women’s experiences within a deeply patriarchal social order. Born in Wahee-Praghna village, she was initially married according to custom, and later became the queen of Yusuf Shah Chak, the last independent ruler of Kashmir. Despite her royal status, she suffered, especially after Yusuf Shah Chak’s imprisonment by the Mughal emperor Akbar, which resulted in lifelong separation and grief.

Educated in the Quranic tradition, Habba Khatoon composed poetry in Kashmiri that reflects themes of love, loss, waiting, social restriction, and gendered oppression. Her Kulyat offers an intense autobiographical voice that challenges patriarchal norms and articulates female resilience through lyrical simplicity and emotional depth. This paper examines her poetry from a feminist perspective, focusing on women’s oppression, agency, and resistance. It further emphasises the translation of her Kashmiri poetry into English as a means of preserving indigenous women’s voices and promoting cultural sustainability. By foregrounding gender equality and marginalised narratives, the study aligns literary analysis with sustainable development discourse.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Shaheena Ban
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/15
TI  - Eco-Cultural and Gender Sustainability in Indigenous Women’s Poetry: The Case of Habba Khatoon
BT  - Proceedings of the Anubhuti 4.0: Discourses in Indian Knowledge Systems – Pathways of Culture, Inclusion, and Sustainability (ICIKS 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 217
EP  - 241
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-615-4_17
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-615-4_17
ID  - Ban2026
ER  -