School of Distance Education

Disgraced 
by Ayad Akhtar
Ayad Akhtar is a novelist and playwright. His work has 
been published and performed in over two dozen 
languages, and he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for 
Drama and an Award in Literature from the American 
Academy of Arts and Letters. Ayad is the author of 
American Dervish
, published in over 20 languages and 
named a 
Kirkus Reviews 
Best Book of 2012, as well as 
his latest novel, 
Homeland Elegies
. His masterfully 
constructed works are brainy, incisive and humorous. 
His characters are hyper-modern blending ancient 
beliefs. His themes, though seen through a Muslim lens, 
are universal: self-awareness, religious devotion, sibling 
love, a father’s dreams.
Disgraced
builds to a fateful dinner party, at which an 
interracial couple—a South Asian lawyer who has 
rejected his Muslim faith and his wife, a Caucasian artist 
who takes her inspiration from Islamic art—play host to 
another couple, a Jewish art curator and his African-
American wife, also a lawyer. The stakes are high for 

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School of Distance Education
English Literature in the 21
st
 century
27 
everyone present, both personally and politically—and 
the evening ends in violence.
The play is centered on Amir Kapur, a lapsed Muslim, 
and his wife, Emily, who battle over their conflicting 
perceptions of Islam. Amir maintaining a hostile, radical 
view of Islam, while Emily forming a moderate, 
appreciative stance. Their tension is exacerbated by 
Amir’s extremist-leaning young nephew, Abe, and 
Emily’s Jewish art dealer, Isaac, who serves as a 
provocateur in drawing out Amir’s deepest and darkest 
opinions on issues related to political Islam. Any 
attempts to establish a middle ground, pursued by 
Emily,are snuffed out by the pulling power of the 
opposing extremes on the spectrum. Emily’s insistence 
on portraying Islam as a religion steeped in a history of 
cultural, scientific and spiritual excellence and 
innovation is opposed by her husband’s stubborn refusal 
to see Islam as nothing more than a collection of 
outdated, “backward” ideas that promote savagery. The 
rift between Emily and Amir is a snapshot into a broader 
struggle of competing interpretations of Islam.
The juxtaposition between transnational (religion) and 
national identities, and the resulting tension are laid bare. 
Disgraced
exposes the complexity that arises when 
nationalism and religion contradict in particular 
circumstances.
At a first glance, it might seem like Akhtar’s play is 
antagonistic towards Muslims. However, upon closer 

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School of Distance Education
English Literature in the 21
st
 century
28 
examination, Akhtar is simply opposed to extremist 
views of Islam, and at an even deeper reading he is 
opposed to the societal and cultural events or attitudes 
that lead to these extremist views. The title of the play 
suggests a perpetrator and victim relationship where 
Islam has been victimized and disgraced by another