International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research

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Breaking and Enduring Domestic Trauma and Maternal Resilience in Shahnaz Bashir’s The Half Mother

Author(s) Ms. Shalini Singh
Country India
Abstract The Half Mother by Shahnaz Bashir depicts the harrowing experiences of Haleema, a Kashmiri woman whose life is shattered by the violence of the conflict in Kashmir. In this novel, Haleema suffers profound personal losses – the murder of her father by soldiers, the breakdown of her marriage, and, most devastatingly, the forced disappearance of her only son Imran. These traumas are rooted in the socio-political turmoil of Kashmir in the 1980s–90s, where security forces routinely abduct men with impunity. Haleema’s journey illustrates both domestic trauma – the abuse and upheavals that occur within her family and home – and maternal resilience – her relentless struggle to find Imran and support other victimized families despite overwhelming odds. The conflict in Kashmir and the epidemic of enforced disappearances provide the backdrop to Haleema’s story, imposing constant fear, uncertainty, and grief on her and countless others. Through close reading of the novel and secondary analyses, this paper examines how Haleema embodies the psychological toll of loss (nightmares, despair, hopelessness) and yet transforms personal agony into communal activism. Citing Bashir’s text and critical studies, we show that Haleema’s suffering becomes a collective testimony of resistance: her identity as a “half-mother” symbolizes all Kashmiri women torn by conflict. Ultimately, Bashir portrays maternal love as a source of unyielding strength. Haleema’s resilience – her refusal to surrender hope or justice even as the trauma consumes her life – underscores the novel’s critique of political oppression and affirms the courage of women living in Kashmir’s long shadow of war.
Keywords Keywords Domestic Trauma, Maternal Resilience, Enforced Disappearance, Collective Memory, Waiting as Resistance, Identity.
Field Sociology > Linguistic / Literature
Published In Volume 8, Issue 1, January-February 2026
Published On 2026-02-15
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