Pub Date : 2022-11-01DOI: 10.1215/15525864-10022160
M. Hegland
{"title":"Women in Conflict and Post-conflict Situations: An Anthology of Cases from Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Other Countries ed. by S. Behnaz Hosseini (review)","authors":"M. Hegland","doi":"10.1215/15525864-10022160","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/15525864-10022160","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45155,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Middle East Womens Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47930232","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-01DOI: 10.1215/15525864-10022244
Louise Cox
{"title":"From Australia to Italy and Palestine","authors":"Louise Cox","doi":"10.1215/15525864-10022244","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/15525864-10022244","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45155,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Middle East Womens Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44154030","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-01DOI: 10.1215/15525864-9767968
R. Abuzaid, Yosra Sultan
I n June 2020 a new wave of feminist activism emerged in the Egyptian public sphere. Building on almost two decades of mobilization and organization against sexual harassment and assault, the new organizers are upper-middleand upperclass Egyptians in their early twenties who politicize social networks to push the problem of sexual violence and women’s bodily integrity back into public discourse (Fayed 2021). Inspired by the global #MeToo movement, they built on its feminist discourse against sexual violence and its model of organization, relying heavily on socialmedia as a tool for action to revitalize feminist activism in authoritarianEgypt (Khorshid 2021). Nadeen Ashraf, a student at the American University in Cairo, started it all when she founded the Instagram account @assaultpolice. Her intention was to provide a space for people to share anonymous testimonies about Ahmed Bassam Zaky, an elite college student who had left a trail of victims of sexual harassment and rape in every private school, college, and institution he attended (MadaMasr 2020). Instagram was her platform of choice because of its popularity among the young generation and the fact that this social network is less subject to state security than Facebook. Once@assaultpolice launched, other individuals joined Ashraf in flooding social media with anonymous testimonies that did not necessarily relate to Zaky but spoke of the pain, agony, and trauma that accompany the experiences of
{"title":"On Social Networks, Anonymous Testimonies, and Other Tools of Feminist Activism against Sexual Violence in Egypt","authors":"R. Abuzaid, Yosra Sultan","doi":"10.1215/15525864-9767968","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/15525864-9767968","url":null,"abstract":"I n June 2020 a new wave of feminist activism emerged in the Egyptian public sphere. Building on almost two decades of mobilization and organization against sexual harassment and assault, the new organizers are upper-middleand upperclass Egyptians in their early twenties who politicize social networks to push the problem of sexual violence and women’s bodily integrity back into public discourse (Fayed 2021). Inspired by the global #MeToo movement, they built on its feminist discourse against sexual violence and its model of organization, relying heavily on socialmedia as a tool for action to revitalize feminist activism in authoritarianEgypt (Khorshid 2021). Nadeen Ashraf, a student at the American University in Cairo, started it all when she founded the Instagram account @assaultpolice. Her intention was to provide a space for people to share anonymous testimonies about Ahmed Bassam Zaky, an elite college student who had left a trail of victims of sexual harassment and rape in every private school, college, and institution he attended (MadaMasr 2020). Instagram was her platform of choice because of its popularity among the young generation and the fact that this social network is less subject to state security than Facebook. Once@assaultpolice launched, other individuals joined Ashraf in flooding social media with anonymous testimonies that did not necessarily relate to Zaky but spoke of the pain, agony, and trauma that accompany the experiences of","PeriodicalId":45155,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Middle East Womens Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48068948","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-01DOI: 10.1215/15525864-9767898
Hikmet Kocamaner
Working Out Desire is an engaging and theoretically informed ethnographic account of Istanbulite women’s interest in sport and exercise (spor merakı), which has transformed these women’s lives in myriad ways. In this fascinating ethnography, Sertaç Sehlikoğlu illustrates how Istanbulite women’s ever-growing passion for physical exercise is not a “banal” fad but an “object of desire” that reveals women’s agentive aspirations to reconfigure their subjectivity beyond the confines of the domestic sphere. By participating in physical exercise, these women do not simply work out their bodies but also recalibrate their relationship to their body image, gender roles, sexuality, faith, and familial duties— “physically, emotionally, and imaginatively” (6). WorkingOutDesire is based on the ethnographic fieldwork Sehlikoğlu undertook in 2008 and 2011–12. Thanks to the interviews she conducted with nearly a hundred female gymgoers, Sehlikoğlu introduces the reader to the recreational world of women from all class positions and different walks of life: university students, career women, housewives, middle-aged “aunties,” pious women, and those who identify as “secular” or “secularist.” Sehlikoğlu also conducted participant observation in venues includingmunicipally owned public gyms catering to aworking-class clientele,women-only private gymsmostly attended by the Islamic bourgeoise, a women-only private gym modeled after the American franchise Curves and owned by a US-educated “secular” feminist, and public parks where themunicipality has installed clunky exercise equipment to encourage Istanbulites to adopt a more active life style. In chapter 1 Sehlikoğlu traces the history of Turkish women’s involvement in sports. The Kemalist early Republican (1923–50) elite presented sports as a tool to civilize the masses and cultivate a healthy nation. Women’s involvement in sports was significant for the early Republican elite’s efforts to brand Turkey as a Western nation vis-à-vis the
《锻炼欲望》(Working Out Desire)是一部引人入胜的、理论丰富的民族志作品，讲述了伊斯坦布尔女性对运动和锻炼的兴趣，这种兴趣以无数种方式改变了这些女性的生活。在这本引人注目的民族志中，Sertaç Sehlikoğlu说明了伊斯坦布尔女性对体育锻炼日益增长的热情如何不是一种“平庸的”时尚，而是一种“欲望的对象”，揭示了女性在家庭领域之外重新配置主体性的代理愿望。通过参加体育锻炼，这些女性不仅锻炼了她们的身体，而且还重新调整了她们与身体形象、性别角色、性取向、信仰和家庭责任的关系——“身体上、情感上和想象上”(6)。WorkingOutDesire是基于2008年和2011-12年进行的人种学田野调查Sehlikoğlu。通过对近百名女性健身爱好者的采访，Sehlikoğlu向读者介绍了来自各个阶层和不同生活阶层的女性的娱乐世界:大学生、职业女性、家庭主妇、中年“阿姨”、虔诚的女性，以及那些认为自己是“世俗”或“世俗主义者”的女性。Sehlikoğlu还在一些场所进行了参与者观察，包括市政拥有的面向工薪阶层客户的公共健身房，主要由伊斯兰资产阶级参加的女性专用私人健身房，模仿美国曲线特许经营的女性专用私人健身房，由一位受过美国教育的“世俗”女权主义者拥有，以及市政当局安装了粗大的运动设备的公共公园，以鼓励伊斯坦布尔人采取更积极的生活方式。在第一章中，Sehlikoğlu追溯了土耳其妇女参与体育运动的历史。凯末尔主义早期共和党(1923 - 1950)的精英们将体育作为教化大众和培养健康国家的工具。女性参与体育运动对早期共和党精英将土耳其打造成西方国家(-à-vis the)的努力意义重大
{"title":"Working Out Desire: Women, Sport, and Self-Making in Istanbul by Sertaç Sehlikoğlu (review)","authors":"Hikmet Kocamaner","doi":"10.1215/15525864-9767898","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/15525864-9767898","url":null,"abstract":"Working Out Desire is an engaging and theoretically informed ethnographic account of Istanbulite women’s interest in sport and exercise (spor merakı), which has transformed these women’s lives in myriad ways. In this fascinating ethnography, Sertaç Sehlikoğlu illustrates how Istanbulite women’s ever-growing passion for physical exercise is not a “banal” fad but an “object of desire” that reveals women’s agentive aspirations to reconfigure their subjectivity beyond the confines of the domestic sphere. By participating in physical exercise, these women do not simply work out their bodies but also recalibrate their relationship to their body image, gender roles, sexuality, faith, and familial duties— “physically, emotionally, and imaginatively” (6). WorkingOutDesire is based on the ethnographic fieldwork Sehlikoğlu undertook in 2008 and 2011–12. Thanks to the interviews she conducted with nearly a hundred female gymgoers, Sehlikoğlu introduces the reader to the recreational world of women from all class positions and different walks of life: university students, career women, housewives, middle-aged “aunties,” pious women, and those who identify as “secular” or “secularist.” Sehlikoğlu also conducted participant observation in venues includingmunicipally owned public gyms catering to aworking-class clientele,women-only private gymsmostly attended by the Islamic bourgeoise, a women-only private gym modeled after the American franchise Curves and owned by a US-educated “secular” feminist, and public parks where themunicipality has installed clunky exercise equipment to encourage Istanbulites to adopt a more active life style. In chapter 1 Sehlikoğlu traces the history of Turkish women’s involvement in sports. The Kemalist early Republican (1923–50) elite presented sports as a tool to civilize the masses and cultivate a healthy nation. Women’s involvement in sports was significant for the early Republican elite’s efforts to brand Turkey as a Western nation vis-à-vis the","PeriodicalId":45155,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Middle East Womens Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41949566","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-01DOI: 10.1215/15525864-9767856
A. Rezaei
This article explores domestic religious practices of Iranian Muslim women in Los Angeles. In the diasporic context, Iranian women’s voluntary engagement in vernacular Islamic practices is often associated with an unreflexive pursuit of religion and lack of agency or with complicity with the Islamic Republic’s conservative brand of Shiism. To examine the complexities of such practices in the United States, this research relies on the ethnography of a monthly domestic gathering in LA that offers a hybrid blend of multiple devotional and social genres. The article demonstrates that the event’s performative and affective characteristics cater to a range of individual framings of the shared ritual and allow for complex and multilayered modes of engaging with the practice of faith. Further, it argues that vernacular Islamic practices in the diaspora are not always tied to individuals’ expression of religious conviction and pursuit of piety. By depicting the material and sensory aspects of the space, the article suggests that such rituals can serve as sites for engaging in a mode of diasporic nostalgia that does not commonly have a place in Iranian communities’ nostalgic narratives of the homeland.
{"title":"The Ritual Fusion","authors":"A. Rezaei","doi":"10.1215/15525864-9767856","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/15525864-9767856","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article explores domestic religious practices of Iranian Muslim women in Los Angeles. In the diasporic context, Iranian women’s voluntary engagement in vernacular Islamic practices is often associated with an unreflexive pursuit of religion and lack of agency or with complicity with the Islamic Republic’s conservative brand of Shiism. To examine the complexities of such practices in the United States, this research relies on the ethnography of a monthly domestic gathering in LA that offers a hybrid blend of multiple devotional and social genres. The article demonstrates that the event’s performative and affective characteristics cater to a range of individual framings of the shared ritual and allow for complex and multilayered modes of engaging with the practice of faith. Further, it argues that vernacular Islamic practices in the diaspora are not always tied to individuals’ expression of religious conviction and pursuit of piety. By depicting the material and sensory aspects of the space, the article suggests that such rituals can serve as sites for engaging in a mode of diasporic nostalgia that does not commonly have a place in Iranian communities’ nostalgic narratives of the homeland.","PeriodicalId":45155,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Middle East Womens Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42906956","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-01DOI: 10.1215/15525864-9767996
A. Almutarie
I n Saudi Arabia the social segregation of men and women has arguably led to the development of a public sphere that operates, to some extent, separately across gender lines but that is rapidly changing. The important roles played by café culture, khutbameetings in mosques, the dissemination of cassette tapes, and forums such as Saudi Arabia’s King Abdul Aziz Centre for National Dialogue will be considered in this article. Social media (SM) platforms such as Twitter have added a new dimension to the public sphere, since they have the ability to both empower individuals to communicate on their own terms and to restrict and shape that communication.
{"title":"From Café Culture to Tweets","authors":"A. Almutarie","doi":"10.1215/15525864-9767996","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/15525864-9767996","url":null,"abstract":"I n Saudi Arabia the social segregation of men and women has arguably led to the development of a public sphere that operates, to some extent, separately across gender lines but that is rapidly changing. The important roles played by café culture, khutbameetings in mosques, the dissemination of cassette tapes, and forums such as Saudi Arabia’s King Abdul Aziz Centre for National Dialogue will be considered in this article. Social media (SM) platforms such as Twitter have added a new dimension to the public sphere, since they have the ability to both empower individuals to communicate on their own terms and to restrict and shape that communication.","PeriodicalId":45155,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Middle East Womens Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48421124","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-01DOI: 10.1215/15525864-9767842
Enaya H. Othman
abstract:This article explores American Palestinian women's discursive strategies and identity politics by which they take control of their marital choices. Through the analysis of sixteen in-depth interviews with second-generation Palestinian women and personal observations within the community, the article shows that nationalist and religious discourses produced by the historical contexts respectively stimulated (semi)arranged in-group marriages in the 1990s and self-initiated exogamous marriages as of the early 2000s. Among the group, Islam has become the primary form of identification, and religious discourse has been circulating within Islamic institutions post-1980s. Based on this transformation, the study draws on the strategic use of religious sentiments and Islamic discourse and argues that women's prioritization of Islamic identity has increased their agency in spouse selection and marriage process. Women's negotiations within an Islamic framework also expose the ways Muslim women counter and redefine gender roles by fortifying their religious beliefs and reinterpreting Islamic doctrine.
{"title":"Palestinian American Women's Marriages within and beyond Borders","authors":"Enaya H. Othman","doi":"10.1215/15525864-9767842","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/15525864-9767842","url":null,"abstract":"abstract:This article explores American Palestinian women's discursive strategies and identity politics by which they take control of their marital choices. Through the analysis of sixteen in-depth interviews with second-generation Palestinian women and personal observations within the community, the article shows that nationalist and religious discourses produced by the historical contexts respectively stimulated (semi)arranged in-group marriages in the 1990s and self-initiated exogamous marriages as of the early 2000s. Among the group, Islam has become the primary form of identification, and religious discourse has been circulating within Islamic institutions post-1980s. Based on this transformation, the study draws on the strategic use of religious sentiments and Islamic discourse and argues that women's prioritization of Islamic identity has increased their agency in spouse selection and marriage process. Women's negotiations within an Islamic framework also expose the ways Muslim women counter and redefine gender roles by fortifying their religious beliefs and reinterpreting Islamic doctrine.","PeriodicalId":45155,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Middle East Womens Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66022153","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-01DOI: 10.1215/15525864-9767870
Y. Hamidi
This article offers a transnational feminist reading of Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis based on the genealogy of politics of location. Articulated by Adrienne Rich in 1984 and criticized and evolved by Karen Caplan, the concept of politics of location provides a framework for rereading the graphic novel that highlights intersectional aspects of identities that appeared in the text. Through this lens this article looks at how Satrapi ties her personal story to the story of other Iranian women and at the nuances of the identities she represents to her Western readers. Notably, the article examines the politics of writing trauma, gender, and race into the text and analyzes the picture of other Iranian women through the mirror of Satrapi’s graphic novel. It argues that in writing Persepolis, Satrapi has made an undeniable contribution to challenging the dominant narratives of nationhood and female citizenship by documenting the trauma of the Iranian Left in the history of the nation. However, because of her specific color-blind politics of race and antireligious politics of gender, her work overlooks some groups of Iranian women’s existence and experiences. Thus this article argues against reading and teaching Persepolis as representative of Iranian women or a universal version of Third World feminism.
{"title":"Politics of Location in Persepolis","authors":"Y. Hamidi","doi":"10.1215/15525864-9767870","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/15525864-9767870","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article offers a transnational feminist reading of Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis based on the genealogy of politics of location. Articulated by Adrienne Rich in 1984 and criticized and evolved by Karen Caplan, the concept of politics of location provides a framework for rereading the graphic novel that highlights intersectional aspects of identities that appeared in the text. Through this lens this article looks at how Satrapi ties her personal story to the story of other Iranian women and at the nuances of the identities she represents to her Western readers. Notably, the article examines the politics of writing trauma, gender, and race into the text and analyzes the picture of other Iranian women through the mirror of Satrapi’s graphic novel. It argues that in writing Persepolis, Satrapi has made an undeniable contribution to challenging the dominant narratives of nationhood and female citizenship by documenting the trauma of the Iranian Left in the history of the nation. However, because of her specific color-blind politics of race and antireligious politics of gender, her work overlooks some groups of Iranian women’s existence and experiences. Thus this article argues against reading and teaching Persepolis as representative of Iranian women or a universal version of Third World feminism.","PeriodicalId":45155,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Middle East Womens Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46575913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-01DOI: 10.1215/15525864-9768011
Rasmieyh R. Abdelnabi
{"title":"A Gendered Return","authors":"Rasmieyh R. Abdelnabi","doi":"10.1215/15525864-9768011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/15525864-9768011","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45155,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Middle East Womens Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46624671","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-01DOI: 10.1215/15525864-9767954
Yasmine Nasser Diaz
G raduation Day is part of my soft powers series of velvet fiber etchings. The notionof soft power is understoodas the ability to attract and co-opt, rather than coerce. Reframing this concept to describe a kind of “code-switching,” this series considers the covert skills that many of us begin to develop as children as we adapt to various environments. For children of immigrants, particularly those of families who have migrated from the global South to the global North, these skills are uniquely nuanced. Continuously traversing private to public spheres, from households of collectivist ideals to institutional and social spaces that encourage individual expression, children quickly learn to code-switch and navigate the disparate realities around them. These strategies are especially nuanced in young girls, who often receive heightened scrutiny as they are coming of age. Each piece in soft powers depicts intimate moments of leisure among familiar company,moments when these girls and youngwomen—among themselves and in their own spaces—can let their guards down and be themselves. Their privacy is the setting for another type of soft power, a reclaiming of agency. The etching process involves the application of an acidic paste that reacts to cellulose fibers (in this case rayon), allowing areas to be etched away, leaving the silk-based mesh intact. The resulting “burned out” fabric, also known as devoré, was popular in the 1990s, an era that I often reflect on in my work. Burnout fabrics have frequently been used in a Yemeni style of dress known as a dirʿ. Dirʿu (plural), usually made with sheer fabrics, are worn casually at home or on special occasions. Understood as a symbol of womanhood, they are typically worn by married or engaged women.
{"title":"Cover Art Concept","authors":"Yasmine Nasser Diaz","doi":"10.1215/15525864-9767954","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/15525864-9767954","url":null,"abstract":"G raduation Day is part of my soft powers series of velvet fiber etchings. The notionof soft power is understoodas the ability to attract and co-opt, rather than coerce. Reframing this concept to describe a kind of “code-switching,” this series considers the covert skills that many of us begin to develop as children as we adapt to various environments. For children of immigrants, particularly those of families who have migrated from the global South to the global North, these skills are uniquely nuanced. Continuously traversing private to public spheres, from households of collectivist ideals to institutional and social spaces that encourage individual expression, children quickly learn to code-switch and navigate the disparate realities around them. These strategies are especially nuanced in young girls, who often receive heightened scrutiny as they are coming of age. Each piece in soft powers depicts intimate moments of leisure among familiar company,moments when these girls and youngwomen—among themselves and in their own spaces—can let their guards down and be themselves. Their privacy is the setting for another type of soft power, a reclaiming of agency. The etching process involves the application of an acidic paste that reacts to cellulose fibers (in this case rayon), allowing areas to be etched away, leaving the silk-based mesh intact. The resulting “burned out” fabric, also known as devoré, was popular in the 1990s, an era that I often reflect on in my work. Burnout fabrics have frequently been used in a Yemeni style of dress known as a dirʿ. Dirʿu (plural), usually made with sheer fabrics, are worn casually at home or on special occasions. Understood as a symbol of womanhood, they are typically worn by married or engaged women.","PeriodicalId":45155,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Middle East Womens Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45975077","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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