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Gender, Mobility and Self: Afghan Women in Vancouver, British Columbia

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Gender, Mobility and Self: Afghan Women in Vancouver, British Columbia GENDER, MOBILITY AND SELF: AFGHAN WOMEN IN VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA by CHRISTINA W. O’BRYAN A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of Anthropology and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2014 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Christina W. O’Bryan Title: Gender, Mobility and Self: Afghan Women in Vancouver, British Columbia This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of Anthropology by: Lynn Stephen, Ph.D. Chairperson Lamia Karim, Ph.D. Core Member Diane Baxter, Ph.D. Core Member Susan Hardwick, Ph.D. Institutional Representative and J. Andrew Berglund Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded September 2014 ii © 2014 Christina W. O’Bryan iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Christina W. O’Bryan Doctor of Philosophy Department of Anthropology September 2014 Title: Gender, Mobility and Self: Afghan Women in Vancouver, British Columbia In this study of Afghan women and the relationship of identity to gendered mobility, I found that the Afghan women in this study were affected by prevailing ideologies which recognized them as refugees no matter how long they had lived in Canada. In this dissertation, I assert that the category of refugee haunts discussions of class, the creation and continuation of a sewing cooperative, and veiling--so much so that in each category, the gendered role of Afghan refugee woman is not only attached to these Afghan women but they must also reinscribe it repeatedly in order to receive services and participate in other community activities and structures. That reinscription becomes a part of a process in which—as part of an avowedly multicultural metropolis and country—they must by definition remain Other in order to belong. There must be the multiplicity of cultural identities in order to sustain the contemporary Canadian multicultural identity. The processual nature of identity articulated by Malkki and Kondo could be lost in this static counterpoint, but the women in this study find ways of using combinations of strategic essentialism and resistance to articulate their own identities through practice. Perhaps more significant, they may have sustained their own power to define themselves by carving out spaces both real and metaphorical in which they define themselves in iv relation to acts of living which reconfirmed their own identities rooted in values which exemplify Afganiyat (Afghanness), Insaniyat (humanness) and the concept of Mardom- dari. v CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Christina W. O’Bryan GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene Harvard University, Cambridge Massachusetts DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy, Cultural Anthropology, 2014, University of Oregon Master of Arts, Cultural Anthropology, 2005, University of Oregon Bachelor of Arts, Biological Anthropology, 2003, Harvard University AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Globalized multiculturalisms Gender Immigration and forced migration Self and Identity Afghan diaspora and other Muslim diaspora populations PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Graduate Teaching Fellow (Instructor), University of Oregon, September 2013-June 2014 Graduate Teaching Fellow, University of Oregon September 2009-June 2013 Dissertation Field Work, University of Oregon January 2008-June 2009 Graduate Teaching Fellow, University of Oregon September 2003-December 2007 vi GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS: Postdoctoral Teaching Fellowship, Food and Culture, University of Oregon, 2014-2015 Stern Fellowship, Globalized Multiculturalisms, University of Oregon 2009-2010 Center for the Study of Women in Society, Gender, Space and Self: Afghan Women in Vancouver, B.C., University of Oregon, 2008 Departmental Research and Travel Grants Gender, Space and Self: Afghan Women in Vancouver, B.C. University of Oregon, 2004 vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Acknowledgements are a paltry way to recognize the extraordinary amount of support I’ve received in the process of preparing for and producing this dissertation. From the moral support of friends and family to the financial support of my department and the University, I will be hard put to capture enough how lucky I have been to be able to do this research, so herewith, selected acknowledgements with the overarching acknowledgement that they cannot be enough. This project was partly funded by the Center for the Study of Women in Society at the University of Oregon, travel and research grants from the as well as a year-long Stern fellowship and many years of graduate teaching fellowships at the University’s Department of Anthropology. Further support in the form of intellectual and other forms of mentoring came from the Department faculty, with special contributions from Theresa O’Nell, Lamia Karim, Carol Silverman, Aletta Biersack, and Frances White as well as from Susan Hardwick in the Department of Geography. To Joan Sappington, Mary Carol O’Bryan and Ewell O’Bryan Jr.—my family—I give my deepest thanks because I truly could not have done this without their support. Special thanks also go to my aunt and uncle, Patricia Peters Eliot and Theodore Lyman Eliot, Jr. (U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan 1973-78), who both inspired my interest in studying Afghans. In addition, I had friends and neighbors like JoAnn and George Estey who made it possible for me to leave my home for a year and a half without worry; to Roy Stone, whose kindness made it possible for me to continue working through a year of illness; and to the Sweet Spot in Monroe, Oregon, where I spent many hours eating good food and listening to good music as I was writing and revising this dissertation. viii My committee—Lynn Stephen, Lamia Karim, Diane Baxter, and Susan Hardwick—has persisted with me through obstacle after obstacle. Diane Baxter, particularly, has championed me for the duration of my graduate career, mentoring me year after year and inspiring me to do more than I ever anticipated I could do, and Lynn Stephen, as my Committee Chair has been a remarkable mentor and teacher. Finally, to the women and men in the Vancouver area who helped me conduct this research. To the members of the refugee committee at Faith Congregation of Vancouver; to the Vancouver members of the Woman’s Network for Women in Afghanistan; to the women in the Crossroads support group; and most especially to the women and men of the Afghan community who made time for my intrusions into their lives and whose lives became the foundation for this research. ix DEDICATION To Warren Lewis Webb, who made me realize that I needed to do this. x TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1 Creation of the Afghan Diaspora .......................................................................... 7 Early Afghanistan Origins and History ............................................................ 8 Afghanistan from the 1800s–1978: State Formation, Gender Policy and Politics .............................................................................. 9 Gender and Islam in Contemporary Afghanistan: The 1978 Saur Coup to the Present......................................................................17 The Soviet Era............................................................................................ 18 The Pakistani Madrasas ............................................................................. 21 From the Soviet Withdrawal through the Taliban Regime ........................ 23 1996-2001 Taliban Regime........................................................................ 24 September 11, 2001 and Beyond ............................................................... 27 A Brief History of Canadian Immigration and Refugee Issues ............................. 28 Methodology .......................................................................................................... 30 Study Population .............................................................................................. 34 The Settings ..................................................................................................... 35 Setting 1. Settlement Agency: Crossroads ................................................. 35 Setting 2. Church Refugee Committee: Faith Congregation of Vancouver .............................................................. 36 Setting 3. Group Helping Women in Afghanistan: Women’s Network for Afghan Women (WNAW) .................................... 38 Setting 4. Interfaith Committee ................................................................. 38 xi Chapter Page Disguising Identity ........................................................................................... 38 Participant Observation and Interviewing ....................................................... 40 Learning the Language .................................................................................... 44 Positionality of the Researcher ........................................................................ 49 II. THE VANCOUVER CONTEXT ........................................................................... 52 Introduction ...........................................................................................................
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