This article discusses rationales for development and humanitarian intervention through the lenses of poststructuralist policy analysis and a postcolonial politics of the womb. It aims to show a variety of perspectives on early marriage and the limitations of dominant policy responses. The article argues that humanitarian logics easily blend with developmentalist models, especially in conditions of protracted displacement. The response to the rise of early marriage among Syrians in Jordan mainly consists of educational activities such as awareness raising that are based on imparting knowledge. The article suggests that responses based on an ethics of dialogue may be more adequate to meet refugees’ needs and, second, may help to shift the balance from developmentalist reproductive governance towards realizing the humanitarian goal of identifying and addressing women refugees’ needs.
My PhD dissertation examined discourses on Female Genital Cutting (FGC) in contemporary Egypt, particularly concerning the relation between FGC and religion. FGC is practiced by both Muslims and Christians and Egypt is among the countries with the highest prevalence rates. Through ethnographic research, the study analysed the vernacularization of transnational activism as an important intervention into local cultural and social debates on gender, sexuality and family norms, in addition to understandings of Islam, Muslim-Christian relations and concepts of race, nation and progress. I argue that FGC is best characterized as an Islamicate practice. A narrow, reifying conceptualization of religion precludes lived understandings of the relation of FGC to Islam and subsequently, precludes more profound social and cultural debate on gendered practices.
This paper discusses cultural translations of international campaigns against Female Genital Cutting (FGC) through a critical ethnographic study. It analyses development initiatives as cultural practices and signifying processes. The vernacularisation of these campaigns leads to certain paradoxes: while the abandonment of FGC is encouraged, nationalist-modernist processes of Othering and dominant gender and sexual moralities are also reinforced. These paradoxes reveal how certain aspects of transnational development discourse are easily transmitted while others are subverted. Individual rights discourse fades to the background in favour of putting emphasis on common social concerns and shared gender-conservative norms. FGC as an external bodily practice and a means to control sexual behaviour is rejected in favour of internal moral self-disciplining. Secondly, the transnational fight against FGC is translated into a fight for marriage. The practice is condemned for causing sexual dissatisfaction and friction within the marital bond. Local development workers aim to connect to women's life worlds through reference to dominant social anxieties-family unity, social cohesion and gender-conservative sexuality norms but, importantly, fail to address women's lived experience and knowledge. When international scripts and hegemonic social norms are foregrounded, a body affirmative discussion of female lived sexuality and actual sexual coping strategies is precluded.
In this article, we look at colonialities of gender and sexuality as concepts employed in international aid and development. These international arenas reveal not only strong reiterations of modernist linear thinking and colonial continuities but also provide insights into the complexities of the implementation and vernacularisation of gender and sexuality in practices of development. Using a critical anthropological perspective, we discuss case studies based on our own research in Egypt and Bangladesh to illustrate the importance of unpacking exclusionary mechanisms of gender and sexuality scripts in the promotion of women’s rights and sexual and reproductive health and rights in postcolonial development contexts. We provide a conceptual analysis of decolonial feminist attempts at moving beyond the mere critique of development to enable a more inclusive conversation in the field of development. To work towards this goal, we argue, a critical anthropological approach proves promising in allowing a politically-sensitive, ethical, and critical engagement with the Other.
This paper discusses practices of early marriage in protracted displacement, among Syrian refugees in Jordan, while drawing from ethnographic research with one extended family in Amman. The dominant form of early marriage is often glossed over as a common, traditional practice. The increase of early marriage among Syrians in Jordan is often explained as the result of a search for economic relief by the family. This article adds to this analysis by offering a new in‐depth reading of early marriage practices. It first shows how an emic differentiation is made between ordinary and ethically challenging forms of early marriage. Second, it aims to render visible additional dimensions of early marriage by showing how refugees actively shape their lives in the liminal state between waiting and home‐making. I argue that marriage can act as a normaliser and signify a desire for an ordinary family life that fulfils social and affective needs of home‐making in contexts of forced displacement.
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