Entangled Resistance: Material Ecofeminism and Sustainable Justice in Tahmima Anam's Uprising

Abstract

According to Material Ecofeminism, Tahmima Anam's Uprising depicts ecological degradation, gendered violence, poverty, and institutional injustice as materially linked systems of oppression rather than isolated social problems. Uprising shows how environmental precarity intensifies the exploitation of underprivileged women in a climate-vulnerable floating brothel community in coastal Bangladesh while encouraging collective resistance, communal care, and ecological knowledge. Material Ecofeminism along with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are used to analyze the novel's central episodes and align them with SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), SDG 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions). Analysis shows that poverty, trafficking, food and water insecurity, unpaid care, educational marginalization, climatic vulnerability, and gender-based violence are linked extractive mechanisms that subjugate women and the environment (Alaimo, 2010). Uprising presents sustainability as an ethical enterprise based on dignity, ecological responsibility, social inclusion, and community care, not a developmental or technocratic goal. This study integrates contemporary ecofeminist literary criticism with the Sustainable Development Goals to contribute to interdisciplinary debates on women, ecology, climate justice, and sustainable development and show how literary narratives can illuminate socially and environmentally just futures.