JOURNAL OF EDUCATION: RABINDRA BHARATI UNIVERSITY ISSN : 0972-7175 Vol.: XXIV, No. :12(II), 2021– 2022 255 MASCULIST SEPARATISM: A TOOL OF GENDER SUBVERSION UNDER THE TALIBAN Yogesh Kumar Dubey Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Delhi, Delhi — 110007 E-mail: yogeshdubey1980@yahoo.com Abstract The present paper attempts to examine Siddiq Barmak-directed Dari docudrama Osama (2003) to explore how women in Afghanistan are marginalised and subordinated to the patriarchal structure of power. The paper aims to study the thematic expressions in the movie to establish how masculist separatism can be used to subvert gender compartmentalisation in society. For the purpose of this examination, the present paper takes into account the patriarchal practice of masculinist separatism which segregates women from men and male-dominated mainstream of society. The paper reflects on the abominable and inhumane conditions under which women under Taliban were forced to stay and serve the patriarchal world order of Afghanistan. It intends to delve deeper into these lines. Key Words : Taliban, Afghanistan, Osama, Women, Masculist separatism. The present paper attempts to examine Siddiq Barmak-directed Dari movie Osama in the light of masculist separatism practised by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Masculist separatism is nothing but the “partial segregation of women from men and male domains at the will of men” (Marilyn Frye 408). It prioritises the interest of men over women by means of promoting the view that "a woman is a being who identifies and is identified as one whose sexuality exists for someone else, who is socially male” (Catharine Mackinnon 73). Such a view gives men access to women, when and where desired, while women are completely denied any similar access to the opposite sex. It seems women’s own will is of no consequence to society. At times, they are made to feel that their existence is in no way superior to that of an animal or a commodity placed in a departmental store. Coaxing and violence are the chief tools employed to make women accept the heinous and abominable practice of masculist separatism that abnegates them. The views of Maria Lugones seem quite meaningful in this context when she says that Servitude is called abnegation, and abnegation is not analyzed any further. Abnegation is not instilled in us through an analysis of its nature, but rather through a heralding of it as beautiful and noble. We are coaxed, seduced into abnegation not through analysis but through emotive persuasion. (Maria Lugones 150) Since coaxing is a tool that cannot be relied upon on every occasion, for sometimes they fail to perform what they are intended at, different kinds of violence are also inflicted on women to compel them to accept a subservient position and be a part in their own exploitation. They often seem to have reconciled with their fate of servitude and abnegation. When it comes to the Taliban, they do not seem to believe in the practice of coaxing for the institutionalisation of masculist separatism. Violence is the only weapon they wield to institutionalise masculist separatism and all this is done in the name of religion. The upcoming discussions in the present paper are divided into two parts wherein part I acquaints the readers with the outline of the story reflected through the docudrama Osama, while part II analyses it critically against the background of masculist separatism of the Taliban. Osama opens with a protest against the Taliban by women under burqas. All these women are widows, and their only demand, which is seemingly apolitical, is that they should be given the right to work for