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79 pages 2 hours read

Nadia Hashimi

The Pearl That Broke Its Shell

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014

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Chapters 7-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 7 Summary: “Rahima”

Rahima begins her life as a bacha posh. Her grandmother is indignant; her father, high on opium, barely notices the change. Khala Shaima reassures Raisa that they have made the correct choice. Rahima is excited for her first errand as a boy. She goes to purchase flour and oil. Rahima bargains with the shopkeeper; he recognizes her as a boy. The shopkeeper “saw the bacha posh but it was just as Madar-jan had promised—people understood” (50). She runs home, feeling liberated by the freedom being a boy offers her.

Rahima takes on chores and household duties that Arif has been neglecting due to his drug use. Arif begins to enjoy seeing Rahima as Rahim. Rahima uses her new power as a “son” to get her sisters to do chores that she would normally have to do, such as bringing their father food and tea. When school starts again, Rahima is in the boy’s class. This will put to test the social acceptance of the bacha posh, especially since Rahima’s cousin, Muneer, will be in her class. Class goes normally. The boys’ class is very similar to the girls. Rahima walks home with two neighbor boys, Ashraf and Abdullah. Along with Muneer, they play a game of soccer with some other local boys. Rahima is happy being Rahim. 

Chapter 8 Summary: “Shekiba”

Shekiba takes on most of the household chores, which pleases her aunts. She gradually learns how to navigate the society of this household’s women, how to avoid beatings, and who beats her hardest. Bobo Shahgul and one of her sons decide that Shekiba will help with the harvest—usually a man’s job. Shekiba is given the nickname “Shekiba-e-shola” due to her physical appearance.

Shekiba realizes that Bobo Shahgul wanted Ismail’s fertile land: That is the real reason why she had tried to summon him after so long. Shekiba’s old home is being taken apart. Shekiba begins to realize that she has better knowledge of farming than does her family. Despite the work she puts into farming, she still has to perform other household chores. One evening, Shekiba overhears a family meeting. Azizullah is losing patience with a debt the family holds to him. Bobo Shahgul proposes arranging a marriage between one of the family’s daughter’s and Azizullah’s son. The family thinks it will be an insult to Azizullah. Bobo Shahgul explains that Shekiba will be useful for them and that Azizullah’s son can find a better wife later—he is only 10 years old. 

Chapter 9 Summary: “Shekiba”

Azizullah accepts Bobo Shahgul’s deal. She uses their parting to berate Shekiba one final time. Shekiba finally gives vent to her feelings: She spits at her grandmother and curses her. Her uncle Zalmai slaps her for this before leading her out of the compound. Having severed ties with her family, she deicides that if she finds herself all alone again, she will return to her family’s land and bury herself. Azizullah is a relatively wealthy man of commerce with a large property. He and Zalmai have tea, and then he asks to see Shekiba’s face. To her surprise, the “infamous monster was half-beautiful” (66). Zalmai attests that Shekiba is a hard worker, healthy, and will be a valuable member of the merchant’s household. Azizullah considers their debts forgiven.

Marjan, Azizullah’s wife, takes pity on Shekiba. She wonders how Shekiba will bear children with her narrow hips; this embarrasses Shekiba: She had never considered the possibility of children before. Marjan and Azizullah have four children: Fareed, the eldest; Maneeja, the youngest; and Haris and Jawad in between. Shekiba is to be Fareed’s bride. Shekiba soon feels at home in the household: It is “almost as if she was living with her siblings reincarnated” (69). However, she knows that she will never truly be a part of the family, because “she was Shekiba, the gift that could be given away as easily as it had been accepted” (69).

Chapter 10 Summary: “Rahima”

Like Shekiba, Rahima has to adjust to the changes in her new life. She has to overcome her instincts to flee from contact with other boys. Raisa advises her to stay out playing with the boys, and when they push, to push back. Arif stays home smoking his opium. One day in the courtyard, Rahima’s sister Rohila wonders what it would be like if their uncle Jamaal was their father. Shahla gets angry. Parwin tells her that she could not have another father without having another family all together. Rahima recalls how Rohila, though younger than Shahla, has to wear a bra. Rahima once tried on Rohila’s bra, realizing that she did not want to have to wear one.

Later that evening, while Arif snores in the living room, one of his friends appears at the gate. Rahima wakes Arif: She “was his son and allowed to wake him for important matters” (73). Abdul Khaliq is summoning his men. The Americans will be arming them against their enemies. Arif leaves at sunrise and is gone for two months. Rahima is proud of her father for fighting alongside the Americans, but her grandfather is suspicious of them.

Khala Shaima comes to visit. She wants to see how Rahima is doing as Rahim. Khala Shaima has been in bad health and it has prevented her from visiting. She is upset that Rahima’s other sisters have been prevented from attending school. Khala Shaima and Raisa get into an argument about Arif. Rahima’s aunt asks how she has been getting on as a boy. Rahima explains that she has been well, and that she even has a small job. When she says that she even met Abdul Khaliq, Khala Shaima and Raisa are upset: They want her to stay away from him. Arif’s mother visits. She and Khala Shaima have a terse relationship; the grandmother does not like her. Arif’s mother says that Arif’s brother, Obaid, is to be married to a second wife. After the grandmother leaves, Khala Shaima continues Shekiba’s story. 

Chapter 11 Summary: “Shekiba”

Shekiba cooks dinner while Azizullah meets with his brother, Hafizullah. Haris, Shekiba’s favorite of Azizullah’s children, keeps her company. King Habibullah will be visiting Hafizullah’s house. Hafizullah is a friend of the king; because of this, “[p]eople in the village showed Azizullah deference, hoping they could curry favor with Hafizullah” (79). Hafizullah is planning a great feast for the king’s reception. The brothers are displeased current hakim, Sharifullah. Hafizullah sees this as an opportunity to take his position. Shekiba eavesdrops on their conversation.

Hafizullah asks his brother asks about how she is getting on in his house. Azizullah says that they marvel at her strength; sometimes they forget she is a woman. Shekiba realizes that Bobo Shahgul had been spreading many lies about her son in order to make the family look better. Shekiba wonders where the deed to her father’s land is; she feels it rightly belongs to her. Marjan surprises Shekiba; she returns to the kitchen. Shekiba wonders what would happen if she tried to claim her father’s land. She asks Marjan, who reaffirms that the land goes back to the family because Ismail had no living male heirs. Only males can inherit land. Shekiba thinks, “But I have always been my father’s daughter-son. My father hardly knew I was a girl” (84). Though her time in Azizullah’s house has been tolerable, she wants to make a life for herself. 

Chapters 7-11 Analysis

In this section of the novel, the meaning of Shekiba’s name begins to take an ironic twist. Though it was intended to mean a gift from God, Shekiba is literally given to Azizullah as a form of payment. This is the first of several instances in which Shekiba is given from one person to another. She begins to define herself and her relation to her world by this meaning.

Rahima’s life begins to parallel that of her ancestor, Shekiba, as she takes on the role of a bacha posh. Shekiba has led an isolated, sheltered life, and it shows in her inability to conform to the strict social code of her new society. Shekiba’s mother died when Shekiba was young, and due to the lack of communication with the rest of the family, Shekiba lacked a female role model. After her siblings die, Shekiba necessarily takes on many of the tasks that they would have done for their father. Ismail feels isolated from his family due to the way that they treated his wife while she lived. He consequently makes no contact with them, preferring to work his isolated piece of the family land by himself. The family, in turn, makes no contact with Ismail until Bobo Shahgul wants to use his land.

Many social norms in this section of the novel prove to be nothing but a veneer. Shekiba proves that a woman can easily adopt a man’s tasks if need be; society, however, frowns upon this. Her family proves to be hypocritical in many ways. Though Shekiba is a continual source of shame for her family, her uncles are content to use her, even for farming. If anyone in the village were to see her harvesting and working the fields, it would be a great source of shame for the family. Despite this, they know that she has inherited her father’s innate agricultural skills, and they are, in fact, better for letting her handle the farm. Her aunts berate her and abuse her, but they rely on Shekiba to take on all of the chores that they find undesirable. Despite the neglect and abuse, Shekiba shows a dim, but growing intelligence. She is not without intellect; she has not been given the opportunity to flourish. It is because of this example that Khala Shaima is so adamant that Rahima and her sisters go to school.

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