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Afghan Refugees in Iran, Pakistan, the U.K., and the U.S. and Life after Return: A Comparative Gender Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Elaheh Rostami-Povey
Elaheh Rostami-Povey*
Affiliation:
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London
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Abstract

This paper compares the divergent positioning of Afghan women in diaspora in Iran, Pakistan, the U.K., and the U.S. and in their return to Afghanistan since the fall of Taliban. Afghans comprise a diverse group in terms of ethnicity, age, class, and religion, and their experiences in diaspora vary accordingly. Afghan women in Iran and Pakistan may have relatively less access to resources, including citizenship rights, in comparison with Afghan women in the U.K. and the U.S. who may be transnational and of a higher social class. However, Afghan women in Iran and Pakistan are able to break down masculine domains more effectively than Afghan women in the U.K. and the U.S. This is because Afghan women in the West are constantly engaged in mediating between ‘Western’ values and their Afghan/Muslim cultural identities. Finally, women in Afghanistan face imported Western notions of market liberalization, governance, and gender mainstreaming, which have failed to bring about desired state building, peace, and security. For the majority of Afghan women, advancing women's rights is not just about challenging male domination; it is also about challenging imperialist domination, militaristically and economically as well as culturally. Although the main focus is on the transitions in women's lives, due to displacement and—in some cases—reintegration, I will also address how these changes have affected Afghan men. One critical theme runs through the paper: the issue of gender, agency, and identity and the ways in which women, through their positioning in diaspora and under invading forces, are also social actors.

Type
Research Article
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , April 2007 , pp. 241 - 261
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2007

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Footnotes

This study was funded by Economic Social Research Council (ESRC), Reference Number: RES-000-22-0762.

References

1 For details of my field research, see my report on the ESRC Society Today web site at www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk.

2 Said, Edward, Culture of Imperialism (London, 1993)Google Scholar.

3 See Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi, Diana Glazebrook, Gholamreza Jamshidiha, Hossein Mahmoudian and Rasoul Sadeghi, Return to Afghanistan? A Study of Afghans Living in Mashhad, Islamic Republic of Iran, Afghan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU), (Kabul, October 2005), www.areu.org.af.

4 AREU, Conference on Afghan Population Movements, (Kabul, 14 February 2006), www.areu.org.af.

5 AREU, Afghans in Karachi: Migration, Settlement and Social Networks, (Kabul, March 2005), www.areu.org.af.

6 Security and Development Policy Group, www.senliscouncil.net (2006), 7.

7 See Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi, Diana Glazebrook, Gholamreza Jamshidiha, Hossein Mahmoudian and Rasoul Sadeghi, Return to Afghanistan? A Study of Afghans Living in Mashhad, Islamic Republic of Iran, Afghan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU), (Kabul, October 2005), www.areu.org.af.

8 AREU, Afghans in Peshawar, Migration, Settlements and Social Networks, (Kabul, January 2006), www.areu.org.af.

9 AREU, Afghans in Peshawar, Migration, Settlements and Social Networks, (Kabul, January 2006), www.areu.org.af.

10 AREU, Conference on Afghan Population Movements, (Kabul, 14 February 2006), www.areu.org.af.

11 An ethnic economy is defined as minority-owned firms, which are small and employing workers from the same ethnic group and depending on the cheap labor force. See Alberts, Heike, “Researching Self-Employed Immigrant Women in Hanover, Germany,” Crossing Borders and Shifting Boundaries, Gender on the Move (Hanover, 2003)Google Scholar.

12 AREU, Afghans in Peshawar, Migration, Settlements and Social Networks, (Kabul, January 2006), www.areu.org.af.

13 For similar experiences in other exile communities, see Moser, Caroline and Clark, Fiona, Victims and Perpetrators or Actors? Gender, Armed Conflict and Political Violence (London, 2001)Google Scholar.

14 For this discussion also, see Moser, Caroline and Clark, Fiona, Victims and Perpetrators or Actors? Gender, Armed Conflict and Political Violence (London, 2001)Google Scholar.

15 This Shi'a tradition is practiced in some parts of Iran and among some traditional communities. It is similar to burning stuffed Guy Fawkes rag dolls in the U.K.

16 For this debate, see Phizacklea, Annie, “Transnationalism, Gender and Global Workers,” Crossing Borders and Shifting Boundaries (Hanover, 2003)Google Scholar and Monsutti, Alessandro, “Cooperation, Remittances, and Kinship among the Hazaras,” Iranian Studies 37, no. 2 (2004): 220–240CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 For excellent criticisms of Western Feminisms in this context, see Liz Stanley and Sue Wise “But the Empress has No Clothes! Some Awkward Questions about the Missing Revolution in Feminist Theory,” Feminist Theory 1 (London, 2000): 261–288 and Young, Iris, “The Logic of Masculinist Protection: Reflections on the Current Security State,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 29, no. 1 (2003): 1–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 There is a debate about the use of the term ‘warlords.’ There is recognition that warlords are not a homogeneous group. Some were/are more powerful than others and performed/perform different functions. See Sedra, M, “Challenging the Warlords Culture, Security Sector Reform in Post-Taliban Afghanistan,” Bonn International Centre for Conversion (London, 2002)Google Scholar; and A. Giustozzi, “Respectable Warlords? The Politics of State-building in Post-Taliban Afghanistan,” Working Paper no. 33, Crisis States Program Development Research Centre, London School of Economics (London, 2003) and building strategies in Afghanistan, Working Paper no. 51, Crisis States Program, Development Research Centre, London School of Economics (London, 2004). I am grateful to Jonathan Goodhand and Alessandro Monsutti for bringing this to my attention.

19 See UNDP Report, United Nations Development Programme, Afghanistan's Future Holds Promise and Peril, http://www.undp.org/2005; and Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper, Between Hope and Fear, Intimidation and Attacks against Women in Public Life in Afghanistan (2004).

20 There have been a number of good reports on these issues in the Guardian Newspaper in 2005–2006, www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan.

21 For this discussion, see Duffield, Mark Global Governance and the New War, The Merging of Development and Security (London, 2002)Google Scholar and Rostami-Povey, Elaheh, Afghan Women: Invasion and Identity (London, 2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar and “Gender, Agency and Identity, the Case of Afghan Women in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran,” Journal of Development Studies (London, 2007).