“I Was Rahim”: Postmemory, Gendered Hermaphroditism, and Embodied Precarity in Hashimi’s The Pearl That Broke Its Shell

This paper examines how ideas of vulnerability and post-traumatic memory are fixed within the everyday lives of Afghan women through Nadia Hashmi’s The Pearl That Broke Its Shell (2014). Through the deeply entwined narratives of Shekiba and Rahima, who live parallel lives years apart, the study explores how gendered trauma is not only experienced but also transmitted across generations. Through an analysis of the Afghan custom of bacha posh, the paper suggests that the freedom associated with a male identity is often accompanied by uncertainty and conflict in constructing individual gender identity and selfhood. Rooted in vulnerability theory, gender performativity, and postmemory, the study introduces the concept of gendered hermaphroditism to describe this enforced oscillation between the two gender roles. The novel reveals inherited trauma as both a living condition and a site of narrative resistance.