“I Was Born in the Wrong Time”: The Concept of Selfhood in the Writings of Anbar Otin

Abstract:Anbar Otin (1870–1915) was a Central Asian Muslim female poet who lived in the city of Khoqand, in contemporary Uzbekistan. She became paralyzed after acquiring a physical injury and was bedridden in her early adult life. Most of her literary works are the result of her hopes and reflect her physical and emotional distress. This paper draws on Anbar’s views of the concept of selfhood by employing her poetry and her only prose work Risalai Falsafai Siyahan [Treatise on the Philosophy of Blackness]. Anbar opposed the society of which she was a member and criticized views that degraded women and considered them unintelligent. Because Anbar’s physical disabilities accentuated her sense of powerlessness, she encouraged other women to be self-assertive in order to have better lives than hers. She contended that the determination of selfhood should not be dictated by others, especially men; instead, women should do so on their own.