Visitors to the 44th Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF 2025) were treated to a compelling
session with Banu Mushtaq, the 2025 International Booker Prize-winning author of Heart Lamp.
In a discussion titled “Women’s Lives, Identity and Resistance”, moderated by Dr. Chitta
Raghavan, the acclaimed writer reflected on how her work continues to amplify marginalised
voices and navigate the intersections of gender, faith, and social justice.
Mushtaq, a writer, lawyer and activist from Karnataka, India, spoke candidly about the many
identities that shape her work.

 

“Through my identities only I have been recognised,” she said. “As a Muslim woman writer of Kannada, as an advocate, as a social activist, as a journalist. All these roles have a common thread: they are pro-people.”
Her book Heart Lamp, translated into English by Deepa Bhasthi, has become a landmark for
Kannada literature. Its stories centre around the lives of Muslim women in southern India whose
quiet resilience form the book’s emotional core. Mushtaq highlighted one such story, High-
Heeled Shoe, which follows a pregnant woman navigating profound personal challenges. “That
is her resistance,” she said. “Even in silence, there is strength.”

Throughout the session, Mushtaq emphasised that resistance does not always need to be
outwardly forceful to be meaningful. Her characters, she noted, preserve the harmony of their
homes even while pushing back against injustice. “My protagonists are tactful, not submissive.
They are not cowards; they find their own ways to challenge what confines them.”
The conversation also touched on the complexities of identity. “Each one of us lives under
multiple identities,” she said. “As a follower of faith, as a gender, as a profession—we are all
many things at once.” What gives these identities coherence, she added, is dignity, a principle
she believes is fundamental to both literature and public life. Speaking on the pressures of self-censorship, particularly as a Muslim woman writer in contemporary India, Mushtaq shared the private negotiations behind her work. “I often think and rethink every word I write,” she said. “Sometimes I close a passage and keep it in storage. That is my challenge and my reality.”

Despite these constraints, her stories have travelled widely, sparking deep emotional
connections with readers who, she noted, sometimes respond by imagining new futures for her
characters. “When a story grows in the reader’s mind, that is when the story truly begins to live.”
Asked about artificial intelligence, Mushtaq discussed technology with measured optimism. “We
cannot condemn any invention,” she said. “What matters is how we use it. As long as people
write, think, and feel, literature will survive.” With more than four decades of writing behind her including six short story collections, a novel, an essay collection and poetry, Mushtaq continues to shape Kannada literature’s global
presence. One of her stories, Kari Nagaragalu, inspired the National Award–winning film Hasina. Her forthcoming projects include her autobiography, a new short story collection and a poetry volume.

As the session concluded, Mushtaq reflected on what the International Booker Prize has meant
for her and her literary tradition. “It is not just my victory,” she said. “It is the voice of many
women, many struggles, that has been heard beyond borders.”

 

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