"The Pearl That Broke Its Shell"

"The Pearl That Broke Its Shell" is, I believe, Nadia Hashimi's first novel.  Nadia's parents left Afghanistan in the 1970's before the Soviet invasion and she visited Afghanistan for the first time in 2002.  She is a pediatrician and lives with her family in suburban Washington, D.C.

Nadia's novel tells the story of two women and is set in Kabul in 2007.  Rahima and her four sisters live with a drug-addicted father and no brothers.and, in a society that values male offspring and devalues females, this is a problem.  The family's hope lies in an ancient custom called bacha posh.  Bacha posh would allow young Rahima to dress and be treated as a boy until she becomes of marriageable age.  Rahima's mother decides Rahima will become Rahim for now and that leaves her free to attend school (as a boy named Rahim) and run errands for her mother.

Rahima's mother has a sister who is crippled, unmarried, and very outspoken.  When she comes to visit her nieces she begins to tell them the story of Shekiba, their great-great grandmother, who also lived as a male for a time and how she ended up in the king's palace.  She encourages her nieces to get as much education for themselves as they can but that is difficult for all but Rahima when their father forbids his daughters to continue to go to school.

Unfortunately, the time comes when the three oldest girls (including Rahima who has been singled out by their father's employer to be his 4th wife) are married off all at the same time and the family is torn apart.  The money received for marrying off his daughters also fuels their father's drug addiction and, as the married daughters learn later from their aunt, their mother also spirals into drug addiction after losing all three of them to marriage at once -- leaving the two younger daughters to fend for themselves.

This novel gives us a picture of what it is like to be a woman with no rights in Afghanistan who can be married off to a man the age of her father or even older.  He can treat her in any manner he wants and it is often abusive.  The jealousy of the other wives and a cruel mother-in-law can make life almost unbearable.  Bearing a son for her husband may bring some relief but not always.

Rahima's aunt encourages her to continue to educate herself despite the harsh conditions she finds herself in and to always be looking for a better life.  What hope is there, though, to escape from an abusive husband when you live in a guarded compound and travel nowhere without your husband and/or guards?  However, women do escape!

This is an extremely well written novel and I can't recommend it enough.  Both Rahima and Shekiba are fascinating and the author goes back and forth between the present and the past recounting their stories.   pazt