Young Afghan-Canadian Women’s Negotiations of Gendered Cultural Scripts and Hybrid Cultural Identities

Abstract A hybrid identity is neither a happy nor an undesirable mixture; it involves negotiating sometimes two contrasting cultural identities of the home and host nations. Research on post-migratory negotiations of gender identity, roles, and expectations has found that partner selection and marriage are significant cultural practices in a diasporic context. In this study, the authors contribute to two sets of literatures: studies on the lived experiences of Afghan-Canadian migrant and refugee women and postcolonial debates on cultural hybridity. The authors employ in-depth feminist interviews to reveal second-generation Afghan-Canadian women’s gendered negotiations of partner-selection practices and marital ceremonies, including their resistance and conformity to these practices through the mobilization of their hybrid diasporic identities. Overall, the study design allows the authors to situate the voices of young Afghan women at the forefront.