Living with patriarchy and poverty: women's agency and the spatialities of gender relations in Afghanistan

Abstract

This article examines the spatialities of gender relations and women's oppression in urban Afghanistan under conditions of poverty and strict patriarchy. Using empirical data from biographical interviews with Afghan women from urban households in Kabul, Herat, and Jalalabad, the article questions how gender as social relation and gender as difference is lived and experienced among the urban poor in Afghanistan. Looking at urban livelihoods through the lens of feminist geography helps to better understand the gendered spaces of home and the outside world, of households as sites of security and violence, and of urban contexts and ethnic affiliations. The approach allows for reflection on women's subjectivities and their own understandings of gender inequality and injustice. Examining the gendered geographies in urban Afghanistan shows how social difference is lived under conditions of patriarchy and poverty and how women's agency contributes to the livelihoods of their households.

Vivir con el patriarcado y la pobreza: la agencia de las mujeres y las espacialidades de las relaciones de género en Afganistán

Este artículo analiza las espacialidades de las relaciones de género y la opresión de las mujeres en los espacios urbanos en Afganistán bajo las condiciones de pobreza y estricto patriarcado. Utilizando datos empíricos de entrevistas biográficas con mujeres afganas de hogares urbanos en Kabul, Herat, y Jalalabad, el artículo cuestiona cómo el género es vivido y experimentado como relación social y como diferencia entre las personas pobres y urbanas en Afganistán. Observar las formas de sustento urbanas con una mirada desde la geografía feminista ayuda a comprender mejor los espacios generizados del hogar y del mundo exterior, de los hogares como sitios de seguridad y violencia, y de los contextos urbanos y las afiliaciones étnicas. El abordaje permite la reflexión sobre las subjetividades de las mujeres y sus propias formas de comprender la desigualdad de género y la injusticia. Examinar las geografías generizadas en los espacios urbanos en Afganistán muestra cómo es vivida la diferencia social bajo condiciones de patriarcado y pobreza y cómo la agencia de las mujeres contribuye al sustento de sus hogares.

与父权及贫穷共生：阿富汗中女性的施为与性别关係的空间性

本文检视阿富汗城市中，在贫穷与极端父权的境况下，性别关係的空间性与对女性的压迫。本文运用传记式访谈来自喀布尔、赫拉特以及贾拉拉巴德的城市家户中的阿富汗女性所获得的经验资料，质问阿富汗中的城市穷人如何生活并经历性别做为社会关係，以及性别做为差异。透过女性主义地理学的视角检视城市的生计，有助于更佳地理解家庭与外在世界、家户做为安全与暴力的场域，以及城市脉络与种族联繫的性别化空间。此一取径，得以反思女性的主体性，以及她们自身对于性别不平等与不正义的理解。检视阿富汗城市中的性别化地理，展现出社会差异如何在父权与贫穷的境况下被经历，以及女性的施为如何影响她们的家户生计。

Keywords::

• Afghanistan
• gender
• women
• urban poverty
• marriage systems
• livelihood security

Palabras claves::

• Afganistán
• género
• mujeres
• pobreza urbana
• sistemas de matrimonio
• seguridad de sustento

关键词:::

• 阿富汗；性别；女性；城市贫穷；婚姻系统；生计安全

Acknowledgements

I thank Aziza Sediqi, Basira, Parween, Lina, Dr Sharaf, Hayatullah, and Anil for their support in the facilitation of fieldwork in the three study cities. I also thank two anonymous reviewers for their comments that helped to significantly improve this paper.

Notes

^1. The discursive construction of public and private spaces in Afghanistan is rigorously gendered. The public as discursive category is strictly masculine and far away from a ‘structural transformation’ as analyzed by Habermas (1962) for the liberal civic public in Western societies. However, the English translation of the book in 1989 and a new edition in 1990 were deliberately kept unchanged to reflect its new actuality in the wake of the transformation in Eastern Europe. In this sense, a ‘lost actuality’ might be recognized during the brief period of extended freedom for women in Afghan cities and a new dynamism of civil society in a Habermasian sense during the 1960s and 1970s, before Islamic fundamentalism was promoted by the West.

^2. Names of respondents have been changed in all quotes.

^3. The term badal has many more meanings, especially in the context of Pashtun tribal societies. Its use has also a gendered dimension, with men usually employing the term in the context of blood revenge, whereas women refer to it as the exchange of gifts and visits (Grima 1992).

^4.Ta'wiz are not only used to cast misfortunes on somebody but also to cure patients in the form of healing prayers written on paper by a mullah (Grima 2002).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stefan Schütte

Stefan Schütte has been Assistant Professor at the Centre for Development Studies at the Institute of Geographical Sciences at Freie Universität Berlin since 2008. He has a PhD in Geography from the University of Heidelberg and an MA in Geography and Economy from the University of Oldenburg, Germany. He has conducted extensive fieldwork in rural and urban India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and the Afghan Hindu Kush for a total of more than seven years, in numerous visits beginning in 1997, and is proficient in Dari, Hindi, and Urdu. His research focuses on urban and rural development, mountain development, the management of natural resources, and human security.