A Comparative Reading of the Intersectionality of Female Identity in Parinoush Saniee’s The Book of Fate and Monica Ali’s Brick Lane

The aim of this study is to explain how female subjectivity is constructed in My Share by Parinoush Saniee and Brick Lane by Monica Ali, and to compare it at the intersections of gender, class, family, space, ethnicity/religion, and migration. The study also examines how differences in narrative form—Masoumeh’s retrospective first-person narration versus the limited third-person narration closely aligned with Nazneen’s consciousness—affect the female voice and the representation of agency. Using a qualitative approach and comparative content analysis, the study examines narrative passages in which multiple axes of power simultaneously shape the lives of the female protagonists. The findings show that, in both novels, family and marriage, in relation to economic pressure, are among the most important sites of intersectionality, while the home can simultaneously function as a space of relative security, invisible labor, and bodily control. Nevertheless, subjectivity and relative agency emerge through education, entering paid work, redefining domestic roles, mobility, and everyday decision-making. In Brick Lane, migration, race/ethnicity, and religion add further layers to power relations. Masoumeh retrospectively reinterprets her experience, whereas Nazneen’s agency develops gradually. The study’s originality lies in linking structural and spatial intersectionality with differences in narrative form.