Navigating the Third Space: Diaspora, Hybridity, and Female Identity in Ayisha Malik’s Sofia Khan is Not Obliged

Abstract

This article examines the construction and negotiation of identity in Ayisha Malik’s debut novel, Sofia Khan is Not Obliged (2015), through the theoretical lens of diaspora studies. Utilizing the conceptual frameworks of Homi K. Bhabha’s “third space,” Stuart Hall’s theorization of cultural identity as “becoming,” and Avtar Brah’s “diaspora space,” the study explores protagonist Sofia Khan’s negotiation of British citizenship, Pakistani heritage, and Islamic faith in contemporary London. The article contends that Sofia’s identity crisis is not merely a psychological affliction but a structurally produced condition arising from the intersection of racially gendered norms, community surveillance, and secular Western hegemony. By analyzing the novel’s deployment of humor, the study argues that Malik uses comedic narrative as a sophisticated technique to transform existential fragmentation and identity incoherence into a legible, politicized subjectivity. Ultimately, this paper situates the novel within the broader canon of British South Asian fiction, furthering critical discourse on Muslim female representation and the evolving aesthetics of 21st-century diasporic consciousness.