Feminist Dilemmas: How to Talk About Gender-Based Violence in Relation to the Middle East?

Abstract

The article charts my trajectories as a feminist activist/academic seeking to research, write and talk about gender-based violence in relation to the Middle East. More specifically, I am drawing on research and activism in relation to Iraq, Turkey and Lebanon to map the discursive, political and empirical challenges and complexities linked to scholarship and activism that is grounded in both feminist and anti-racist/anti-Islamophobic politics. While reflecting on my positionality, the article aims to challenge the binary of activism and academia as well as Western and Middle Eastern contexts in terms of knowledge production.

feminist activist ethnography through Arabic Twitter: fellowship as a method

“…For the latter, their logic is that the topic is too sensitive to discuss in their communities and may be counterproductive, further widening the gap between feminists and other women in society. In her research on GBV within the Middle East, Nadje Al-Ali (2019, p. 28) recounts the tensions of working in an activist, feminist environment marked by divided positions and opinions around specific issues, irrespective of the activists’ location, due to the diversity in their ‘experiences, aims and approaches’. In the ‘polyphonic’ social media spaces (Winter and Lavis, 2020, p. 56), polarisation tends to be more severe than in offline communities (Du and Gregory, 2017).…”

“…Activists and scholars in diasporic locations find themselves amidst a tornado of contested discourses in Western locations and their home countries, which they must challenge and deconstruct without prioritising certain discourses over others. As Al-Ali (2019, p. 24) explains, ‘a diasporic positionality is highly complex and challenging in the current climate of heightened Islamophobia, racism, anti-refugee and anti-immigration sentiments and the rise of right-wing movements and constituencies in Europe and North America’. Therefore, talking about sensitive issues in the Middle East, such as GBV, may require scholar-activists in the diaspora to constantly draw parallels between Western and non-Western contexts to illustrate that GBV, for instance, is inherent in different societies and cultures.…”

A Plea To ‘Middle Eastern and North African’ Feminists: Let’s Liberate Ourselves from Notions of Coloniality

“…When I present my work on the Arab Gulf in conferences, I am often asked about patriarchy, gender-based violence, Islamic extremism and oppression in the region. A few feminists have noted the challenge of having to resist coloniality in research and scholarship while simultaneously critique heterosexism, racism, slavery and classism in local communities (Al-Ghabra, 2018; Al-Ali, 2019). I concur.…”

“…I was excited when I received this fellowship because I expected to have the support to finally break free from such pressures to adhere to the ‘norm’. Yet, again, during most of the experience, the subtle differences of each story, each region and each struggle were masked and remodelled to forcefully fit into pre-existing Western hegemonic, neoliberal ideas of women’s rights and women’s empowerment (Mahmood, 2005; Al-Ali, 2019), as well as state feminism and authoritarianism and, most importantly, ‘the myth of universal truth’ (Patel, 2016, p. 8). Counter to what my peers claimed, these were not my observations or contentions alone.…”

Danger Zone or Newfound Freedoms: Exploring Women and Girls’ Experiences in the Virtual Space during COVID-19 in Iraq

“…Although the marginalization and victimization of women and girls in Iraq predate the United States-led invasion in 2003, Iraqi women have faced additional and heightened threats to their well-being, security, human rights, and education in the period after [ 5 , 7 , 8 ]. For example, research finds that, since 2003, women have faced an increase in gender-based violence (GBV), including rape, honor killings, domestic violence, and kidnapping [ 5 ].…”