Resettlement, Religion, and Remembrance in the Iraqi Diaspora in Toronto and Detroit, 1980 to Present
Iraqi Women in Diaspora: Resettlement, Religion, and Remembrance in the Iraqi Diaspora in Toronto and Detroit, 1980 to present by Nadia Ellen Jones-Gailani A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of History University of Toronto © Copyright by Nadia Ellen Jones-Gailani, 2013. ABSTRACT Iraqi Women in Diaspora: Resettlement, Religion, and Remembrance in the Iraqi Diaspora in Toronto and Detroit, 1980 to present. Doctor of Philosophy, 2013 Nadia Jones-Gailani Graduate Department of History University of Toronto This dissertation explores how Iraqi migrant women living in Toronto and Detroit negotiate identity within existing networks of ethnic Iraqi communities settled in North America. The focus is on how ethno-religious identity is imagined and performed in diaspora as new generations of migrant Iraqi women reinvent their relationship with the host countries of Canada and the U.S., and with the homeland. As part of the global diaspora of Iraqis, women of different ages and ethnicities reinvent identity from within the official multiculturalisms of Canada and the U.S. By engaging with themes of historical memory, generation, diasporic citizenship, and religiosity, I explore how Iraqi women remember, retell, and reinvent the past through their narratives. At the core of this research is a unique archive of more than a hundred oral histories conducted with Iraqi women in Amman, Detroit and Toronto. Drawing upon this archive, I explore how Iraqi women recreate official ‘myths’ of nationalism and the nation, but also, and importantly, shape subjective narratives that reveal their lived experiences of trauma, loss and oppression.
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