Author(s): Ashwaq Naji Jumaa, Prof. Sarab Kadir Mugair

Abstract: One of the multifaceted topics in the literary tradition is women’s oppression as it is associated with social female issues such as marginalization, self-determination, inequality, rights …etc. The novelist, Alka Joshi, dealt with the issue of women’s oppression in her novels, particularly The Henna Artist (2020) and The Secret Keeper of Jaipur (2021). Hence, the main job of this paper is, through the application of Jeffries’ toolkit, to investigate the linguistic and stylistic constructions of women's oppression in these novels. Based on qualitative and quantitative research procedure, thirty extract are drawn from these two novels and analyzed in terms of Jeffries (2010) conceptual-textual functions. The study concludes that in the two novels, women struggle to stand against negative aspects in a society, such as gender inequality, patriarchy, women discrimination, marginalization. The writer, through her female characters, tries to depict women as feeble creatures who undergo male control and power.

Keywords: Alka Joshi, Gender Studies, Stylistics, Literary Criticism, The Henna Artist.

Article Info: Received: 09 Apr 2026; Received in revised form: 05 May 2026; Accepted: 08 May 2026; Available online: 12 May 2026

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.113.10