The Domestic Sphere as Trauma Landscape in Atiq Rahimi's The Patience Stone

Traditionally domestic sphere is imagined as a place of safety, emotional security, intimacy, love and care. But in a country like Afghanistan, war- torn patriarchal societies often turned it to a site where violence, fear, oppression and sexual abuse are perpetuated. Atiq Rahimi's ‘The Patience Stone’ (2008) portrays the powerful picture of a woman confined within the four walls of the house that functions simultaneously as a refuge from war and a prison of patriarchal domination. This paper examines how domestic space become a landscape of trauma through the intersections of war, gender, power and silence. Drawing primarily on Cathy Caruth's trauma theory, this paper argues that the protagonist's home embodies both physical confinement and psychological devastations. The study further analyses, how the protagonist's act of confession transforms the domestic space into a site of resistance and testimony.