Yearning for Autonomy in a Gender Dysphoric Culture – An Analysis of Nadia Hashimi’s One Half from the East

Abstract

Gender Dysphoria scientifically may relate to a condition in which individuals continually are under the stress of being irrelevant to the biological sex and the desirable sex, but the dysphoric thoughts always need not be scientifically oriented. It is sometimes limited with the thoughts of an individual, curbed under societal norms. The autonomy expected by a ten or thirteen-year-old girl is not about feminism or equality in the society, it is the mere desire to live the life itself. The denial of basic rights and curtailment leads to yearning; Obayda and Rahima are two different characters portrayed in the novel who are forced to behave in a particular way, antithetical to their biological gender. They are chained by the cultural opinions and search for an identification leads to the development of the story. This paper examines the yearnings depicted by the two main characters; the desire to live unapologetically, without any mask to cover their identity. The parallel portrayal of two different characters with similarities is to showcase parents play pivotal role in shaping the life of children and cultural norms are always flexible and fluid with possibilities of modification.