Identity Recasting and Rethinking the Traumatic Experiences of Afghan Women's Diaspora: A Spivakian Reading of Nadia Hashimi's When the Moon Is Low

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 MA in English Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Malayer University, Malayer, Iran

2 Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Malayer University, Malayer, Iran

Abstract

During the era of transnational migration, diasporic women's narratives often get subjected to prevailing masculine paradigms, which inscribe themselves as the voice of the whole immigrants. This study challenges predominant victimization discourses in studies on Afghan migration. It demonstrates how Nadia Hashimi's When the Moon Is Low (2015) uncovers Fariba's transformation from subordination towards establishing a new home within a space of unbelonging. Using Gayatri Spivak's subalternity and strategic essentialism, the research brings forth the subaltern practices of Afghan diasporic women in some key scenes such as bath and prayer rituals, border crossing, and cultural negotiations with others, and makes significant theoretical contributions to reconceptualize how hybrid identity functions as a space of feminist resistance, enabling Fariba as an Afghan immigrant woman to recast her identity and reclaim her agency and subjectivity empowerment. Considering Fariba's strategic negotiations in cultural borders and her testimony in its social context, the research not only subverts the distorted historical narratives of the immigrant women and deconstructs homogenized representations of Afghan women's diaspora, but also reframes hybridity as a contested, fragile space of cross‑cultural exchange and tactical self‑recreation – not a successful escape from patriarchy, but a series of small, significant acts of resistance

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Critical Literary Studies

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 08 June 2026

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History

  • Receive Date: 16 June 2025
  • Revise Date: 24 May 2026
  • Accept Date: 08 June 2026

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