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By Farzana Abdilashimova Submitted to Central European RECONSTRUCTING VIRGINITY: HIDDEN SENTIMENTS AND COMPLEXITIES BEHIND HYMENOPLASTY IN KYRGYZSTAN By Farzana Abdilashimova Submitted to Central European University Department of Gender Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Gender Studies. Supervisor: Hadley Zaun Renkin Second reader: Eszter Timár CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2019-2020 Declaration of Original Research and The Word Count I hereby declare that this thesis is the result of original research; It contains no materials accepted for any other degree in any other institution and no materials previously written and/ or published by another person, except where appropriate acknowledgement is made in the form on bibliographical reference. I further declare that the following word count for this thesis are accurate: 26043 Body of thesis (all chapters excluding notes, references, appendices, etc.): Entire manuscript: 25561 Signed: FARZANA ABDILASHIMOVA CEU eTD Collection i Abstract This study aims to explore experiences and perceptions of young Kyrgyz women, who underwent the hymenoplasty, towards the hymen restoration surgery in Kyrgyzstan. In Kyrgyz society, the procedure of hymenoplasty is not a subject of open discussions and definitely not of a social approval. Also, due to the ethical character of the surgery, there is no existing statistical data about the hymenoplasty and number of women undergoing this genital cosmetic surgery in Kyrgyzstan. By focusing on the women’s lived experiences, their voices, and meanings attached to this genital cosmetic surgery this research seeks to address the issue that remains yet unexplored within Kyrgyz society. The primary goal of this research is to examine the role hymen restoration surgery plays in lives of women in Kyrgyzstan: its impact on women’s lives and their relationship with their families, as well as motives and circumstances that pushed/motivated women to undergo this surgery. Thus, I intend to raise Kyrgyz women’s voices and explore the phenomenon from the inside. Through applying qualitative research and in-depth interviewing, I examine the experiences, motives and desires of various Kyrgyz women who underwent the hymenoplasty in their given socio-cultural settings. I will argue that hymenoplasty is a complex phenomenon that cannot solely be identified through the binaries of resistance and subordination. Building on the theoretical framework of agency, subjectification and patriarchal bargaining I posit that Kyrgyz women exercise their own agency through undergoing hymen restoration surgery and negotiate between the dominant norms of their socio-cultural context and their personal desires and motives. Keywords: women, agency, gender, subjectification, power, hymen, hymenoplasty, virginity. CEU eTD Collection ii Acknowledgements I would like to express my immeasurable appreciation and deep gratitude to my supervisor Hadley Zaun Renkin. Dear Hadley, thank you for your indispensable support, motivation and understanding. I am sincerely thankful for all the feedbacks and guidance you provided me with during my writing process. It is hard to imagine where I would be right now without your careful guidance. Special gratitude to Francisca de Haan, head of the Gender Studies department. Dear Francisca, I am extremely grateful for all your help and cheerful support through the difficult times I have been through. My deepest gratitude goes to all my respondents for trusting me and sharing their stories. Without you all my thesis would not even be possible, alive and complete. Thank you for your courage, trust and participation. My infinite love and appreciation to my family, partner and close friends for always believing in me and supporting despite the oceans and thousands of kilometers between us. Special thanks to Albina, Erika and Uluk for your constant support and for your precious help in finding respondents to make this research happen. I am sincerely grateful to my colleagues and all those wonderful humans who made my academic year at CEU unforgettable and memorable. Extraordinary class of 2020 – we made it! CEU eTD Collection ii Table of Contents DECLARATION OF ORIGINAL RESEARCH AND THE WORD COUNT ............................................. I ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................... II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................................... III INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................... 1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE .................................................................................................................................................................................. 4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS .................................................................................................................................................................................. 4 THE STRUCTURE OF THESIS ......................................................................................................................................................................... 5 CONTEXT: GENDER, RELIGION AND SOCIETY IN THE CONTEXT OF KYRGYZSTAN ............... 6 CONSTRUCTION OF FEMININITY AND FEMALE EMBODIMENT ..................................................................................................... 9 CONSTRUCTION OF KYRGYZ WOMANHOOD: RAISING A DAUGHTER OF QUALITY.............................................................. 11 METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................................................................... 16 POSITION AS A RESEARCHER .................................................................................................................................................................... 17 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS....................................................................................................................................................................... 17 LIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH ............................................................................................................................................................ 18 LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................................................ 19 WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT HYMENOPLASTY? .................................................................................................. 19 BRIDE-KIDNAPPING AND DISCOURSES OF SHAME IN KYRGYZSTAN......................................................................................... 23 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ............................................................................................................... 29 SUBJECTIFICATION, EMBODIED AGENCY AND BARGAINING WITH PATRIARCHY ................................................................ 29 CEU eTD Collection ANALYZING HYMENOPLASTY AMONG KYRGYZ WOMEN ............................................................ 36 MEETING THE RESPONDENTS ................................................................................................................................................................... 38 NON-CONSENSUAL SEXUAL INTERCOURSE: A CHANCE THAT WAS TAKEN AWAY ............................................................ 41 Overcoming the trauma: undergoing hymenoplasty=agentive capacity................................................... 44 Bargaining with patriarchy.................................................................................................................... 47 iv CONSENSUAL PREMARITAL SEX: AGENCY AND NEGOTIATION ................................................................................................ 50 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................. 56 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................................ 57 CEU eTD Collection v INTRODUCTION “Thus, within the ideology of honour and shame, the protected hymen has a symbolic value where the whole family shares in the ownership of the hymen. While the hymen anatomically belongs to the girl, yet it culturally belongs to the whole group. The hymen becomes a social category, a social marker of honourable and respectable female. Dominant cultural norms regard the intact hymen not only as a proof of virginity, but also as the only acceptable proof.” (Ghanim, 2015, p. 43) “What may appear to be a case of deplorable passivity and docility from a progressivist point of view, may actually be a form of agency – but one that can be understood only from within the discourses and structures of subordination that create the conditions of its enactment. In this sense, agential capacity is entailed not only in those acts that resist norms but also in the multiple ways in which one inhabits norms” (Mahmood, 2005, p. 15) Although in many societies the status of female virginity is not of a great significance and value, there are still the societies who put their strongest emphasis on the status of young women’s sexual purity and hymen in particular. Being a psychological and socially constructed notion, the idea of virginity became linked to physical bodies
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