Crossing Continents: Navigating The Self and The Mother-Child Relationship in Nadia Hashimi’s When the Moon is Low

Abstract

Nadia Hashimi’s piece-de-resistance When the Moon is low is a chilling portrayal of displacement, loss and cultural upheaval suffered by the novel’s protagonist, Fereiba. In war-torn and Taliban-led Afghanistan, a widowed mother of three navigates life and struggles to reach London with the dream of securing a better life and livelihood for her children. A convincing foundation for examining geopolitical displacement, intergenerational trauma, and maternal identity intersect in the narrative is achieved by drawing on the works of trauma theorists such as Cathy Caruth, Judith Herman, Veena Das and John Bowlby. The study explores how Hashimi portrays the fragmentation and reconstruction of the self and familial relationships within a context of war, patriarchy and exile. The paper specifically focuses on the shifting dynamics of the mother-child bond — fereiba and her deceased mother, her stepmother KokoGul, and her son Saleem — demonstrating how these relationships serve as conduits for both inherited suffering and resilience. While the text has been examined through various critical lenses - including gender, displacement, and migration - no study, so far, has specifically investigated the psychological trauma of its characters through the framework provided by aforementioned trauma theorists. This paper unearths emotional realities and relational patterns that may have long existed within the narrative but remained unexamined or obscured.
The study’s methodology employs a close textual reading of the novel alongside theoretical insights from trauma studies to trace the psychological impact of forced migration and the gendered experience of displacement. The findings reveal that trauma in the novel is systemic, not merely individual, manifesting in legal, cultural and familial ruptures. The paper concludes that When the Moon is Low provides a critical literary lens through which to comprehend the emotional complexities of identity reconstruction and the human cost of displacement across continents. In doing so, it not only adds to existing scholarship on Afghan literature but also foregrounds how trauma functions as a formative force in the formulation of identity within oppressive sociopolitical contexts.