{"id":33723,"date":"2014-07-09T09:33:28","date_gmt":"2014-07-09T13:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=33723"},"modified":"2015-01-04T23:05:24","modified_gmt":"2015-01-05T04:05:24","slug":"the-pearl-that-broke-its-shell-by-nadia-hashimi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-pearl-that-broke-its-shell-by-nadia-hashimi\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pearl<\/a>See the\u00a0entwined pair of hands? Although the girl and woman never meet, they remain forever\u00a0bound by both blood and experience over\u00a0a tumultuous century in Afghanistan. The woman is Shekiba, the only daughter in\u00a0a family of sons, whose gender alone makes her a target of abuse and persecution. \u00a0Four generations later,\u00a0Shekiba’s great-great granddaughter, Rahima, remains\u00a0trapped by\u00a0the same\u00a0traditions and laws that devalue women. And yet in spite of their constrained circumstances, both Shekiba and Rahima share an unusual past: both experience the brief freedom of living as bacha posh<\/em>, an ancient custom that transforms daughters into sons.<\/p>\n

When Rahima\u00a0and her two older sisters are accosted returning from school, their education abruptly ends. In 2007 Kabul, while women again struggle under insurgent Taliban control,\u00a0Rahima is given the chance to become Rahim, the son who can chaperone his sisters and mother outside\u00a0their constricting home, go to school, play in the streets with other boys … and suddenly be\u00a0free.<\/p>\n

Rahima’s transformation as a\u00a0bacha posh<\/em>\u00a0is especially encouraged by Khala\u00a0Shaima, the girls’ maternal aunt whose “twisted spine” denied her marriage but allowed her comparative\u00a0independence. She shares the stories of Shekiba, the ancestor who also lived temporarily as a man. In spite of onerous challenges, Shekiba survived: burning oil melted half of her 2-year-old-face, cholera claimed the lives of\u00a0her\u00a0mother and brothers, and the family’s fertile fields taught her to toil harder and better than any man. When, at 18, she loses her father, her estranged relatives grudgingly reclaim her, abusing\u00a0her as a\u00a0servant until they barter her away to another family. Shekiba eventually\u00a0becomes Shekib, serving in the royal Kabul court as a guard policing the King’s harem, until tragedy forces her back into her womanly place …<\/p>\n

Rahima, too, can’t stay\u00a0free for long. Her\u00a0opium-addicted father sells her\u00a0and her two older sisters in marriage to a powerful warlord and his two cousins. Rahima is just 13; her sisters,\u00a014 and 15. The men are\u00a0decades older; Rahima\u00a0is her husband’s\u00a0fourth wife. As violent as her husband\u00a0is, his mother proves to be\u00a0the most vicious of all.<\/p>\n

The American-born daughter of two Afghan immigrants,\u00a0Nadia Hashimi<\/a>\u00a0adds to a growing list of\u00a0lauded titles by medical doctor-authors:\u00a0The Third Son<\/em><\/a> by Julie Wu<\/a>, The Blue Notebook<\/a><\/em> and Bingo’s Run<\/a><\/em> by James A. Levine, and even Hashimi’s best-known literary compatriot, Khaled Hosseini<\/a>. [I always want to ask these inspiringly talented souls when they ever sleep!] Hashimi’s debut\u00a0is an intricately-choreographed dance between two interlinked souls, downtrodden yet tenacious, victimized yet ultimately hopeful.<\/p>\n

Expansively detailed, Pearl<\/em> is no doubt difficult to read (or listen to as admirably narrated\u00a0by Gin Hammond who moves effortlessly\u00a0between childish excitement\u00a0and aged gravitas): the deprivation and violence against girls and women demands witnesses, especially as such treatment is so widespread even now. Most ironically tragic of all is the horrifying treatment women endure at the whims of other women; women perpetuate the inequity and punishment as much as, if not more so, than the men. That said, the few women who lift up other women, who are dedicated to initiating lasting change refuse to be ignored, from unwavering Khala Shaima to the outspoken parliamentarian Zamarud willing to risk her life. They are the leading inspiration for brave changemakers forging the path that young Rahima, as long as she can survive, will need to follow\u00a0…<\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

See the\u00a0entwined pair of hands? Although the girl and woman never meet, they remain forever\u00a0bound by both blood and experience over\u00a0a tumultuous century in Afghanistan. The woman is Shekiba, the only daughter in\u00a0a family of sons, whose gender alone makes her a target of abuse…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,328,581,81,6],"tags":[6608,58,10,149,5781,36,129,5780,39,5779,571,44],"class_list":["post-33723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-afghan","category-afghan-american","category-audio","category-fiction","tag-bookdragon","tag-coming-of-age","tag-family","tag-gender-inequality","tag-gin-hammond","tag-girl-power","tag-mother-daughter-relationship","tag-nadia-hashimi","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-pearl-that-broke-its-shell","tag-personal-transformation","tag-siblings"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-pearl-that-broke-its-shell-by-nadia-hashimi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"See the\u00a0entwined pair of hands? 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