Women Inferiority and Struggle in The Pearl That Broke Its Shell

Abstract

The past until today women’s inferiority never comes to an end especially in
patriarchal society. Afghanistan is one of the Muslim countries in the world that adopts
patriarchy and causes extreme rules for women. Therefore, women’s inferiority is basic
problem of inequality for women in Afghanistan because it is a system that already exists in
the society. The novel The Pearl That Broke Its Shell reflects about the inferiority of female
characters in Afghanistan in past time and present. The situation that does not change for a
hundred years is the proof that patriarchy has become the root of the norms in the society.
The objectives of the research were to study about women inferiority and struggle in
patriarchal society Afghanistan as seen in the novel The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia
Hashimi.
This study is using feminism approach. “the term women subordination” refers to the
inferior position of women, their lack of access to resources and decision making, etc. The
feeling of powerlessness, discrimination and experience of self-esteem and self-confidence
jointly contribute to the subordination to women (Sultana, 2011). The position of women in
Afghanistan has traditionally been inferior to that of men. This position has varied according
to age, socio-cultural norms, and ethnicity. In fact, Afghan women are the slaves of their
father, husband, father in-law, and elder brother (Rahimi,1991). Women to be aware of their
situation both in the society and at home, to form their self-consciusness as women, to
demand their equality with men and to obtain their autonomy. The resistance is the one way
to achieve equality, dignity, and rights (such as right to education, right to birth control, right
to divorce, and to participate in decision-making) (Millet, 1970).
This research is qualitative using close reading method. The object from this research
is a novel The Pearl That Broke Its Shell which is published by Nadia Hashimi in 2014. The
techniques of data collection were: 1) reading the novel carefully to understand which
contained of inferiority and struggle, 2) taking notes and highlighting the data of inferiority
and struggle, 3) classifying, 4) analyzing, and 5) relating to historical evident.
The result of the study was, first, there were two major forms of women’s inferiority:
1) the feeling of powerlessness in decision making of daughters’ marriages. This
powerlessness happens to both the mother and the daughters. 2) getting discriminative
treatments such as son preference, house works burden, lack in freedom and mobility, get
physical abuse and lack in inheritance. Second, the forms of women struggle were: voicing
their opinion, changing their identity for mobility, getting education and working to earn
money. The significant point based on the data is that the women are treated inferior but they
do not let themselves becoming the victim and suffer for the rest of their life. With the
findings of this study as discussed above, it could be concluded that in doing the struggle the
women must become strong and brave because they oppose men and the norms that
traditionally exist in Afghanistan. The spirit of the women to improve their condition as
illustrated by the female characters in The Pearl That Broke Its Shell raise the motivation and
strength for the woman to fight inferiority and make better position in the society.
Keywords: Feminism, Inferiority, Struggle, Afghan Women