RECLAIMING IDENTITY AND FEMALE AGENCY IN ARIA ABER’S GOOD GIRL: A FEMINIST STUDY

Abstract

Aria Aber’s Good Girl (2025) presents the complex journey of Nila Haddadi, a young Afghan-German woman negotiating cultural expectations, gender norms, family relationships, sexuality, and personal freedom. The novel highlights a significant problem concerning the ways socially constructed ideals of femininity influence a woman’s understanding of herself and restrict her ability to define her identity independently. This article examines the reclamation of female identity and the development of female agency in the novel through a feminist perspective, drawing on de Beauvoir’s existential feminism, Butler’s theory of gender performativity, and Mohanty’s transnational feminism. Particular attention is given to the “good girl” ideal as a form of gender and social regulation through which female behaviour, sexuality, and personal choices are judged. The discussion explores how Nila internalizes these expectations and gradually begins to question the identity imposed upon her. Her artistic aspirations, personal experiences, cultural negotiations, and increasing self-awareness contribute to her movement toward greater self-definition. The article argues that Nila’s agency does not emerge through a complete rejection of her family or cultural background. Rather, it develops through an ongoing process of questioning, resistance, negotiation, and self-expression. The study demonstrates that Good Girl presents female identity as evolving and situated, while highlighting the possibility of reclaiming the self within complex cultural and gendered structures.