Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Telling Trauma: Resisting Through Embroidery Stories, Jharna Choudhury

Journal of International Women's Studies

As a contemporary mode of subversion, the art of needlework has been revived from the category of the merely “aesthetic” to the expansive category of the “powerful.” Freestyle hand embroidery enables the socially disabled women of South Asia and other regions of the world to vent their trauma within the walls of their households. The select set of embroideries displayed here is expressionistic in art-style, presenting three micro-stories on bride burning, female foeticide, and Eve-teasing, as part of my personal project named “Embroidery Stories.”

“Gender At The Root Of Everyday Life”: Equity, Activism, And The Perspectives Of Diana J. Fox, Goutam Karmakar

Journal of International Women's Studies

This in-depth conversation with Diana J. Fox, Professor of Anthropology at Bridgewater State University, Massachusetts, United States, and a cultural and applied anthropologist, scholar-activist, and documentary film producer, puts emphasis on how Fox’s research demonstrates that a decolonial feminist viewpoint inspires and even necessitates that Indigenous feminisms be at the center, and that researchers from the global north have a responsibility to do so. In this interview, Fox talks about how, as a feminist decolonial/anticolonial anthropologist, she has worked for global gender justice and equality throughout her career, especially within the Anglophone Caribbean, which is where the bulk of her …

Unbearable Weight: Women And The Shaping Of Political Subjects Through The Politics Of Corporeality, Meenakshi Malhotra, Krishna Menon

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article explores three moments in recent history where Indian women’s bodies—seen and unseen—highlight the centrality of the female body in the changing political discourse of India. The first moment, the Shaheen Bagh moment, is characterized by the body marked as “Muslim woman” and her occupation of public squares and streets (the protests in 2019-20 against the Citizenship Amendment Act). The second moment is the female body that engaged in unprecedented care work while being subjected to heightened levels of violence in the times of the pandemic, and the third moment is the resilient female body in struggle against neo-liberal …

Comprehending The Bleeding Body: Epistemological Violence And (Un)Tabooing Menstruation In Selective Media Texts In India, Argha Basu, Priyanka Tripathi

Journal of International Women's Studies

The representation of menstruation in Indian media texts (films, short films, and advertisements) is limited. Besides the advertisement of industrially produced sanitary napkins, we hardly come across their mention. Even in cinematic spaces with female leads, the issue remains unuttered. Since the last half of the previous decade, there has been a conscious attempt to raise awareness around menstruation. Considering menstruation as a socially mediated biological process, in which bodies become sites where social constructions of differences are mapped onto human beings to inflict violence upon the subject, these works have resisted this systematic patriarchal oppression by asking an appropriate …

Women In Afghanistan: The Ambivalence Of The Prison In Nadia Hashimi’S A House Without Windows, Tooba Rasheed

Journal of International Women's Studies

“A house without windows” literally translates to a prison. Nadia Hashimi’s novel A House without Windows (2016) personifies Afghan women’s lives as prisoners in their own bodies while also dialogically situating their stories inside a prison–Chil Mahtab. This article focuses on the semiotic relationship between the spatial prison of Chil Mahtab and the temporal prison that women live in under the hegemony of men. The violated bodies of characters like “the little girl” carry the burden of patriarchal injustices in Afghanistan. And the horrifying stories of being rejected by male institutions, particularly the law, paint a picture of Afghan society …

The Caged Bird Sings: Resilience And Resistance Against The Afghan Patriarchal Culture In Nadia Hashimi’S One Half From The East, Avijit Das, Shri Krishan Rai

Journal of International Women's Studies

In a highly conservative society like Afghanistan, which is mainly governed by ancient codes of conduct and tribal laws, the discourse concerning the rights of women is primarily framed by misogynistic men. As portrayed by Nadia Hashimi in her book One Half from the East (2016), every aspect of women’s lives, from education to expression to movement, is monitored and checked by the patriarchy through the perpetration of rigid cultural codes of conduct for women. But even within such strict patriarchal domination, women can create space for themselves to subvert such repressive hegemony and articulate strategic resistance in a culture …

Bodies In Transit: Women, War, And Violence In Select Fiction From Nepal, Lakhipriya Gogoi

Journal of International Women's Studies

The figures of women in conflict zones have been presented in South Asian literature chiefly as torn and battered bodies/souls, usually carrying an irremediable suffering and sense of loss that they bear as wives, mothers, and daughters while their male compatriots participate in the zone of war. The twentieth century surge in identity movements and political conflicts in South Asia, however, offers us new figures of women as “warriors” or direct participants in the zones of violence. The usurpation of such new bodies, on the one hand, defies the hegemonic feminization of women’s bodies as caregivers, and on the other …

Women And War: (Dis)Illusionment And Disclosure In Niromi De Soyza’S Tamil Tigress, Goutam Karmakar

Journal of International Women's Studies

Niromi de Soyza’s Tamil Tigress: My Story as a Child Soldier in Sri Lanka’s Bloody Civil War (2011) is a memoir about a year in the author’s and her friend Ajanthi’s lives when they joined the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) and fought as female militants in the second phase of the Sri Lankan civil war. Soyza’s autobiographical account depicts the 1980s when the Tamil Tigers were fighting the Sri Lankan government and the Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF) in the northern and eastern parts of the country. As teenagers, Niromi and Ajanthi were highly inspired by the revolutionary …

Gender, Sexuality And Representation In Pakistani Literature: Qandeel Baloch As A Victim Of Honor Killing, Nukhbah Taj Langah, Sumera Umrani

Journal of International Women's Studies

The article discusses women’s bodies as victims of violence by regarding gender as a stereotype as compared to a social construct within the context of Pakistan. The primary sources for this analysis are a sample of investigative journalism based on the life of a Pakistani social media figure Qandeel Baloch as depicted in The Sensational Life and Death of Qandeel Baloch (2018) by Sanam Maher. We contend that the conventional expectations of women in Pakistan have resulted in crimes like honor killing. Through textual analysis of Maher’s account, we debate the concept of honor killing within the Pakistani context, with …

Violated Bodies And Truncated Narratives: Mapping The Changing Contours Of Violence And Eco-Strategies Of Resistance In Contemporary South Asian Women’S Writings From Bangladesh, Nobonita Rakshit, Rashmi Gaur

Journal of International Women's Studies

The article aims to portray the traumas and sufferings of female war survivors in pre and post-1971 Bangladesh in Selina Hossain’s novel Hangor, Nadi, Grenade (1976), translated into English as River of My Blood by Jackie Kabir in 2016. By using the feminist political-ecological perspectives of Wendy Harcourt and Arthuro Escobar (2002), the constructive framework of the article aims to analyze the changing contours of violence in the spheres of the body, home, environment, and social-public arenas in the lives of the female war-survivors, especially the Muktijoddhas living in the fictional places of Haldi, Bangladesh as portrayed in the novel. …

On Being Biranganas: Passivity, Agency, And Wartime Rapes In Shaukat Osman’S Nekre Aranya, Madhurima Sen

Journal of International Women's Studies

The 1971 War of Bangladesh witnessed one of the worst incidents of gender-based violence in history in which women’s bodies became the site for asserting victory or dominance. The newly formed nation focused on the image of the violated women and was united in its thirst for revenge against Pakistani perpetrators. The nation bequeathed the apparently reverential title of birangana (brave women) to the rape survivors in recognition of their “sacrifice.” However, even though the image of the birangana circulated in the public sphere in various forms, the narrative of the women themselves got suppressed under national legend-building. This article …

Hasina’S Sisters Are Machine Women: Women’S Violated Bodies And/In Bangladeshi Garments Factories, Umme Al-Wazedi

Journal of International Women's Studies

Hasina and Shimu are garment factory workers; Hasina’s life is portrayed in Monica Ali’s 2003 debut novel, Brick Lane. Shimu is the main character of Rubaiyat Hossain’s 2020 film Made in Bangladesh. Hasina and Shimu suffer from violence enacted on their bodies by both male garment factory workers and their husbands. They suffer from male hegemonic masculinity, patriarchal norms, and discriminatory economic structures. Furthermore, the dominant image of a female garment factory worker as sexually promiscuous enables more violence against them. In addition, economic violence is used to control and limit women’s bodies. Their bodies become a site of control …

The (Counter) Politics Of Digital Comics In India: Reading Literature Of The Digital Space, Debadrita Chakraborty

Journal of International Women's Studies

In her 1984 essay, “A Cyborg Manifesto,” Donna Haraway envisioned that digital technology would introduce a utopian space which would liberate women from gendered power dynamics. Despite such optimism shown by third and fourth wave feminists in India, political inertia and juridical failure to implement laws and justice for victims of gender violence, be they domestic violence or sexual assault, have manifested how the digital sphere has failed to become a post-gender space. On the other hand, the pervasiveness of online gender-based violence in social media and other interactive web platforms exacerbates women’s exclusion from the public political sphere. Against …

Cultural Violence, Violent Gendering, And Abjection: Discourses On Sites Of Violence Through Trans Women’S Narratives From India, Tanupriya, Dhishna Pannikot

Journal of International Women's Studies

The conventional cultural construct of gender and sexuality embedded in the dichotomous paradigm makes it challenging for people with queer and trans identities to fit into an assigned social role. Violent gendering takes place where women are seen as second-order beings, disciplined and controlled by men, the first-order beings. The process of feminization and femininity is linked to women, which fixates on the idea that “one is born a woman” rather than “one becomes a woman.” This violent process of acculturation to these set norms comes with a lot of vulnerability for trans people in the form of abiding by …

Recollecting The Body: Violence And Resistance In The Writings Of A Theatre Actress In Colonial Bengal, Anannya Mitra

Journal of International Women's Studies

Critical interventions by black, third world, and/or postcolonial feminists against the homogenizing tendencies of majoritarian narratives of women have led to the emergence of intersectional feminist scholarship and its endeavour to postulate women’s stories along the interfaces of race, class, caste, and gender hierarchies. Historicizing social and material bodies has been a constant engagement here, resulting in the analysis of symbiotic processes of subject formation and otherization, thereby entailing a confrontation with the heterogeneous nature of violence and its functioning in such processes. Using such scholarship, this article seeks to comprehend the interplay of various forms of violence in the …

(Re)Asserting The Feminist Sensibilities: Confessionalism, Christian Feminism, And The Poems Of Eunice De Souza, Payel Pal

Journal of International Women's Studies

In her poems, Eunice de Souza, one of the most prominent Indian women poets writing in English, depicts women’s cultural sensitivities, their developing personalities in a male-dominated societal structure, their desire for independence, and frustrations stemming from their constrained surroundings. Her poetry demonstrates a range of feminist aesthetics and efforts to chart new territory for women. Her treatment of love and sexuality confirms her discontentment with a society that necessitates a woman’s silence and subservience. In her compositions, she implements an assertive and subversive tonality, and this article illustrates how the poet’s confessional mood enables readers a glimpse into her …

Labour As Violence In Dalit Households: Reading Autobiographical Narratives By Dalit Women, Pratibha

Journal of International Women's Studies

The everyday concerns of Dalit women are frequently overlooked in discourses about the emancipation of Dalits from Brahminical hegemony in favor of issues deemed weightier, such as reform ideology, caste conflicts, and political power struggles. The micro-politics of the sexual division of labour in Dalit households, with its corrosive effects on the well-being and self-perception of Dalit women, has remained side-lined. Even when discussed with reference to caste and gender intersectionality, the labour consigned to Dalit women is spoken of in additive terms to explicate their “double oppression” or victimisation through sexual exploitation at the hands of upper caste men. …

After Violence: Dalit Women’S Narratives And The Possibilities Of Resistance, Anandita Pan

Journal of International Women's Studies

The history of feminist criticism has undergone a long trajectory where it gets written in terms of difference and sameness. Such anxieties get written in the Indian scenario with reference to the “caste” question. The predominant constructions of “woman” and “Dalit” give prominence to savarna women and Dalit men. As such, the mutuality of caste and gender is unaddressed. The intersectional identity of Dalit women, simultaneously affected by caste and patriarchy, has challenged this homogeneity claimed by mainstream Indian feminism and Dalit politics. Dalit feminism provides a critique of Brahmanism implicit in mainstream feminism, and the reproduction of patriarchal norms …

Of Contested Landscapes And Women’S Bodies: Rape As An Invasive Weapon In Malsawmi Jacob’S Zorami, Debajyoti Biswas, Zothanchhingi Khiangte

Journal of International Women's Studies

The geopolitical history of India’s Northeast replicates the history of the struggle of the ethnic communities living along what is often referred to as a “troubled periphery.” The fictionalised stories produced in this region, therefore, often betray the wounds inflicted on people living in this contested territory. As such, the history of this place and the story of its people lose their distinctions, allowing ethnographic study and the fluidity of personal narrative to converge and inform each other. Malsawmi Jacob’s Zorami (2018) encapsulates this history of strife and contestation through emphasizing a double significance in the eponymous character symbolising both …

Marginality, Hypermasculinity, And The Women Of Assam: Parag Das’S Sanglot Fenla As Chronicle, Uddipana Goswami

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article draws on critical feminist methodologies and approaches to focus on hypermasculinist violence against marginalized populations—specifically women—in the geopolitical peripheries of modern nation-states. It treats Assam, one of the eight states of Northeast India, as a textbook case, lending itself to a gendered study of hierarchical, hypermasculinized structures in hegemonic postcolonial nation-states. Basing its analysis on the portrayal of women’s bodies in Parag Das’s Sanglot Fenla—one of the most iconic Axamiyā novels written against the backdrop of insurgency and independentist violence in Assam—it discusses themes of postcolonial masculinities, relational marginalization, and the mutation of gendered relations in the context …

On Violence And Resistance: Narratives Of Women In South Asia, Goutam Karmakar

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Socio-Cultural Determinants Of Women’S Homelessness: A Study Of Dar-Ul-Aman, Multan, Mahwish Rasheed, Tayyaba Batool Tahir, Zahid Zulfiqar

Journal of International Women's Studies

Home is an integral element of the Pakistani family system, and the idea of home is deeply embedded in Pakistani women’s consciousness. The prime objective of this study is to explore the socio-cultural factors responsible for women’s homelessness. This study highlights various determinants that lead women to leave their homes. The issue of women fleeing from their homes is a matter of disregard in Pakistan’s culture, such an action is considered as an issue of family’s self-image, respect, and honour. In the present study, Marxist and feminist lenses have been used to indicate women’s secondary status that is responsible for …

A Review Of The Cultural Gender Norms Contributing To Gender Inequality In Ghana: An Ecological Systems Perspective, Portia Nartey, Ozge Sensoy Bahar, Proscovia Nabunya

Journal of International Women's Studies

While significant progress has been made in improving the wellbeing of women and girls around the world, a gender gap still exists between men and women which is very evident in Ghana. Gender inequalities continue to persist in Ghana because of cultural gender norms that exalt and favor men and put women in subordinate and subservient roles. These cultural gender norms hinder women’s development and widen gender inequality between men and women in different system levels of society. Therefore, there is a need to examine the influence of these cultural gender norms on women’s lives using a systems framework to …

Book Review: Hood Feminism: Notes From The Women That A Movement Forgot, Shauntey James

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Book Review: The Education Trap: Schools And The Remaking Of Inequality In Boston, Gisselle Rodriguez Benitez

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Film Review: Gaza Mon Amour, 2020. This Palestinian, Drama Film With Spanish Subtitles Was Directed By Brothers Arab Nasser And Tarzan Nasser And Written By The Brothers And Fadette Drouard. Produced By Rani Massalha, Marie Legrand, Michael Eckelt. Distributed By Versatile Films., Tucker Nadeau, Manal Al-Natour

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Our Slaps, Meenakshi Verma

Journal of International Women's Studies

"Our Slaps" raises the question of whether and at all traumatized mothers, who once used to be abused daughters, can confess and escape their psychic hinterlands without being tricked into becoming abusive by subconsciously switching their role identity from a victim to a persecutor. The poem achieves this by boldly offering that rare chance to one such mother who ultimately dares to lay the first cornerstone of intention for a healthy legacy of unabused women. Despite being trapped in a hopeless vicious cycle, this mother struggles to allow her young daughter to keep her innocence intact by deliberately curbing her …

Grandma, Widowhood And Her Family, Prateeti Ghosh

Journal of International Women's Studies

The Sati Abolition Act (1829) followed by the Hindu Widow Remarriage Act (1856) could not wholly eradicate the discrimination against Bengali widows in their own families. After almost 300 years, in the 21^st century, as it is witnessed by the narrator, in a few Hindu Bengali patriarchal traditional families, widows are deprived of their basic human rights such as choice of food, clothing etc. Discrimination against widows i.e., gender inequality, as a matter of fact, originates from her own family or the in-laws’ family. To eradicate inequality, awareness education should be given to both the victims as well as …

Pakistan’S Heuristic Her-Story Via Lahore, Afiya Shehrbano Zia

Journal of International Women's Studies

Despite the reference to the ‘long Partition,’ the idea of Pakistan has a hurried history: the word originated in the 1930s, the Lahore Resolution of 1940 pledged to realize the Two-Nation Theory and shortly after, in 1947, Pakistan was created. Seventy-five years on, unresolved questions of national identities and the ‘woman question’ remain large and elusive and I propose, the palimpsest city of Lahore is deeply and symbolically representative of these irresolute matters. Regardless of the veracity of the claim that Lahore is Pakistan, the core struggles, victories and losses of the country’s her-story can easily be recalled through the …

Women And Land Snails Consumption In The Southwest Region Of Cameroon, Forka Leypey Mathew Fomine

Journal of International Women's Studies

Both marine and terrestrial species of snails are consumed in most countries worldwide, including Southwest Cameroon where it is an age-old practice among various ethnic groups. Before the introduction of snail farming in the Southwest Region of Cameroon in the 1990s, all the residents who ate snails acquired them through gathering.

There is significant internal variation in the history of land snail consumption among four ethnic groups: the Banyang, Mbo, Balung, and Bakweri. The long history of land snail consumption among the Banyang and Mbo can be attributed to their geographical proximity to the eastern region of Nigeria, where the …