Women's Coalitions beyond the Laicism-Islamism Divide in Turkey: Towards an Inclusive Struggle for Gender Equality?
Autor/in:
Çağatay, Selin
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 6 (2018) 4, S 48-58
Inhalt: In the 2010s in Turkey, the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) authoritarian-populist turn accompanied the institutionalization of political Islam. As laicism was discredited and labeled as an imposed-from-above principle of Western/Kemalist modernity, the notion of equality ceased to inform the state’s gender policies. In response to AKP's attempts to redefine gender relations through the notions of complementarity and fıtrat (purpose of creation), women across the political spectrum have mobilized for an understanding of gender equality that transcends the laicism - Islamism divide yet maintains secularity as its constitutive principle. Analyzing three recent attempts of women's coalition-building, this article shows that, first, gender equality activists in the 2010s are renegotiating the border between secularity and piety towards more inclusive understandings of gender equality; and second, that struggles against AKP’s gender politics are fragmented due to different configurations of gender equality and secularity that reflect class and ethnic antagonisms in Turkish society. The article thereby argues for the need to move beyond binary approaches to secularism and religion that have so far dominated the scholarly analysis of women’s activism in both Turkey and the Nordic context.
Gender Equality and Beyond: At the Crossroads of Neoliberalism, Anti-Gender Movements, "European" Values, and Normative Reiterations in the Nordic Model
Autor/in:
Nygren, Katarina Giritli; Mulinari, Diana; Martinsson, Lena
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 6 (2018) 4, S 1-7
Inhalt: The social-democratic-inspired “Nordic model”, with its agenda for gender equality, has been an important example for the development of political interventions to transform society but at the same time, it has been functioning as an emerging gender normalising and stabilising structure. The last decade it has also become focused by antigender movements and ethno-nationalistic parties both as emblematic for the Nordic nations as well as a threat that must be destroyed to save the nation. This issue will elaborate further on gender equality as a node, a floating signifier in powerful and often contradictory discourses situating the discussions within the tradition of scholarships of hope through a dialogue about articles that search for realistic utopias that might be considered to be “beyond gender equality”. The included articles engage with the messiness and crossroads of gender equality in relation to the work-line, territories, neo-liberalism, religion, the crisis of solidarity and the success of anti-genderism agenda.
When the Personal Is Always Political: Norwegian Muslims' Arguments for Women's Rights
Autor/in:
Helseth, Hannah
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 6 (2018) 4, S 59-66
Inhalt: For almost two decades, the public debate about Islam in Western Europe has been dominated by concerns about the lack of gender equality in the racialized Muslim population. There has been a tendency to victimize "the Muslim woman" rather than to encourage Muslim women’s participation in the public debate about their lives. This contribution to the study of discourses on Muslim women is an analysis of arguments written by Muslims about women’s rights. The data consists of 239 texts written by self-defined Muslims in major Norwegian newspapers about women’s rights. I will discuss two findings from the study. The first is an appeal to be personal when discussing issues of domestic violence and racism is combined with an implicit and explicit demand to represent all Muslims in order to get published in newspapers - which creates an ethno-religious threshold for participation in the public debate. The second finding is that, across different positions and different religious affiliations, from conservative to nearly secular, and across the timeline, from 2000 to 2012, there is a dominant understanding of women's rights as individual autonomy. These findings will be discussed from different theoretical perspectives to explore how arguments for individual autonomy can both challenge and amplify neoliberal agendas.
Schlagwörter:Arendt, H.; Arendt, H.; Feminismus; feminism; Individualismus; individualism; Neoliberalismus; neoliberalism; Islam; Islam; Gleichstellung; affirmative action; Menschenrechte; human rights; woman; Muslim; Muslim; Europa; Europe; Norwegen; Norway; Brown, W.; public debate; traditional media; women’s rights
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Religionssoziologie
Basic Income: The Potential for Gendered Empowerment?
Autor/in:
Duvander, Ann-Zofie; Koslowski, Alison
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 6 (2018) 4, S 8-15
Inhalt: Basic income is likely to gain momentum as the next social welfare trend to sweep over the world with ideas of how to improve the fairness and efficiency of distributing money. Other earlier movements with similar ambitions to transform societies, ranging across the political spectrum from socialism to neo-liberalism, have led to very different consequences for strata of citizens, but have in common that they have de-prioritised gender equality in favour of other interests. Advocates of basic income suggest that in addition to pragmatic gains, such as a more efficient state administration, primarily a basic income will empower citizens, leading to the potential for greater human flourishing. Our question is whether this empowerment will be gendered and if so, how? So far, the basic income debate addresses gender only in so far as it would raise the income of the poorest, of whom a larger proportion are women. However, it is less clear how it might contribute to a transformation of gendered behaviour, making possible divergent shapes of life where binary and set notions of gender are not a restriction. We discuss the idea of basic income from a perspective of gender equality in the Swedish context.
Solidarity in Head-Scarf and Pussy Bow Blouse: Reflections on Feminist Activism and Knowledge Production
Autor/in:
Gemzöe, Lena
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 6 (2018) 4, S 67-81
Inhalt: The author of this article discusses the ways in which gender equality and intersectionality are understood and enacted in two recent feminist campaigns in Sweden that use similar techniques to mobilise support for different causes. The first campaign is the so-called Hijab Call-to-Action, a solidarity action that took place in 2013 in which women in Sweden wore a hijab (the Muslim headscarf) for one day in defence of Muslim women’s rights. This campaign manifests the ways in which the notion of gender equality brings with it a norm of secularity, but also how the equation of equality and secularity is contested. The second feminist campaign discussed is the so-called Pussy Bow Blouse manifestation that aimed at taking a stand in the controversies surrounding the Swedish Academy as a result of the Metoo campaign in Sweden. The author looks at the political and discursive processes enfolded in these campaigns as a sort of collective learning processes that connect feminist activism and scholarship. A key concern is to critically analyse a binary model of powerless versus gender-equal or feminist women that figure in both debates. Further, the author shows that both campaigns appeal to solidarity through identification, but at the same time underscore the contingent and coalitional nature of identity in the act of dressing in a scarf or a blouse to take on a (political) identity for a day.
The Traps of International Scripts: Making a Case for a Critical Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality in Development
Autor/in:
Roodsaz, Rahil; Van Raemdonck, An
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 6 (2018) 4, S 16-24
Inhalt: 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.
Schlagwörter:Kolonialismus; colonialism; Anthropologie; anthropology; Gender; gender; Sexualität; sexuality; internationale Hilfe; international aid; Entwicklungshilfe; development aid; woman; Menschenrechte; human rights; Postkolonialismus; post-colonialism; Feminismus; feminism; Ägypten; Egypt; Bangladesch; Bangladesh; Entwicklungsland; developing country; Nordafrika; North Africa; Südasien; South Asia; critical anthropology; development;
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Entwicklungsländersoziologie, Entwicklungssoziologie
Gender and the EU's Support for Security Sector Reform in Fragile Contexts
Autor/in:
Ansorg, Nadine; Haastrup, Toni
Quelle: JCMS Journal of Common Market Studies, 56 (2018) 5, S 1127–1143
Inhalt: How does the European Union (EU) include 'gender' within its support to security sector reform (SSR) programmes? The EU has committed to include gender perspectives by implementing the Women, Peace and Security agenda (WPS) within its foreign security practices. While researchers and practitioners recognise the importance of integrating gender issues into SSR operational effectiveness, there is limited knowledge about how this functions within the EU's security architecture. This article uses Feminist Institutionalism (FI) to understand the process of gender mainstreaming within the EU's support to SSR programmes. It does this by using two crucial theory‐testing cases of SSR programmes - Ukraine and Afghanistan. It finds that the EU's ability to promote gender inclusive approaches to SSR is limited by the structure of the EU's own assumptions and capabilities, and institutional constraints in third countries. At the same time, the cases underscore the importance of individuals as agents of change.
Feministische Herausforderungen an das Flüchtlingsrecht: von der zweiten zur dritten Welle
Titelübersetzung:Feminist challenges for refugee law: from the second to the third wave
Autor/in:
Wessels, Janna
Quelle: GENDER - Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft, 10 (2018) 2, S 18-31
Inhalt: Der Beitrag wirft einen feministischen Blick auf das Flüchtlingsrecht. Der zunächst für den klassischen politischen - und männlichen - Dissidenten entworfene Flüchtlingsbegriff hat in den vergangenen Jahren eine tiefgreifende Transformation erfahren, die sich gut mit der zentralen These der zweiten Welle des Feminismus greifen lässt: Das Private ist politisch. Die Aufweichung zwischen öffentlichem und privatem Bereich führte zu einem grundlegenden Wandel, der es ermöglichte, dass bestimmte geschlechtsspezifische Verfolgungssituationen ebenfalls von der Definition erfasst werden können. Nach diesem großen Erfolg hat das feministische Engagement mit dem Flüchtlingsrecht aber stark nachgelassen. Der Beitrag arbeitet fortbestehende Herausforderungen heraus und zeigt auf, dass auch die dritte Welle des Feminismus wichtige Lehren zur Weiterentwicklung des Flüchtlingsrechts bereithält.
Inhalt: The article takes a feminist look at refugee law. The refugee concept, which was originally designed for classic political - and male - dissidents, has undergone a profound transformation in recent years. These changes are neatly reflected in the central claim of second-wave feminism: the personal is political. The closing of the public/private di- vide has led to a fundamental change, such that the definition of "refugee" is now understood to cover gender-related persecution. Following this great success, however, feminist engagement with refugee law diminished considerably. The article elaborates on remaining challenges and shows that thirdwave feminism also has some important lessons for the further development of refugee law.