University of Texas at El Paso DigitalCommons@UTEP Open Access Theses & Dissertations 2014-01-01 Constructing a Participatory Citizenship: Rhetoric and Agency of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan Lauren M. Connolly University of Texas at El Paso, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.utep.edu/open_etd Part of the Rhetoric Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Connolly, Lauren M., "Constructing a Participatory Citizenship: Rhetoric and Agency of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan" (2014). Open Access Theses & Dissertations. 1222. https://digitalcommons.utep.edu/open_etd/1222 This is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UTEP. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UTEP. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CONSTRUCTING A PARTICIPATORY CITIZENSHIP: RHETORIC AND AGENCY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ASSOCIATION OF THE WOMEN OF AFGHANISTAN by LAUREN MARIE BOSTROM CONNOLLY, B.A., M.A. APPROVED: Kate Mangelsdorf, Ph.D., Chair Beth Brunk-Chavez, Ph.D. Maggy Smith, Ph.D. Brenda Risch, Ph.D. Bess Sirmon-Taylor, Ph.D. Interim Dean of the Graduate School Copyright © by Lauren M. Connolly 2014 DEDICATION To Hugo and Tersila CONSTRUCTING A PARTICIPATORY CITIZENSHIP: RHETORIC AND AGENCY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ASSOCIATION OF THE WOMEN OF AFGHANISTAN by LAUREN MARIE BOSTROM CONNOLLY, B.A., M.A. DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at El Paso in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of English THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT EL PASO May 2014 TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION .............................................................................................................................. III TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................... V LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... VII LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................... VIII LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ........................................................................................................ IX CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background of Problem ................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 What does it mean to be a citizen? ............................................................................................... 2 1.2.1 Constructions of Afghan Citizenship .......................................................................................... 4 1.2.2 Afghan and United States Constructions of Afghan Citizenship ................................................ 5 1.2.3 Feminist definitions of citizenship ............................................................................................. 9 1.2.4 Action Oriented Literacies as Participatory Citizenship ........................................................... 11 1.3 Why the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan?: The Rationale for Investigation ..................................................................................................................................... 13 1.3 Review of research questions ..................................................................................................... 15 1.4 Limitations of study ..................................................................................................................... 18 1.5 Overview of Chapters .................................................................................................................. 18 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................................... 23 2.1 Citizenship: A Feminist Analysis .............................................................................................. 23 2.1.1 Iris Marion Young’s Critique of Citizenship .......................................................................... 24 2.2.1 Feminist Socialist, Ruth Lister .................................................................................................. 29 2.1.3 Postcolonial critique ................................................................................................................ 31 2.2 Rhetoric and Writing Studies: Working to Identify the Issues .................................................... 33 2.2.1 Use of Citizenship in Composition Studies ............................................................................... 36 2.2.2 Constructions of Literacy and Citizenship in Rhetoric and Writing Studies ............................. 37 2.2.3 Bridging the Gaps Between the Institution and Community ................................................... 39 2.2.4: Race, gender as it relates literacy & Citizenship ..................................................................... 42 2.3 Previous Research on The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan ................ 43 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................. 47 3.1 Feminist Theory .......................................................................................................................... 50 3.2 Critical Discourse Analysis ........................................................................................................... 52 3.3 Selecting the Texts ...................................................................................................................... 54 3.4 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................................... 55 CHAPTER 4: TRACING THE GENRE CHAIN ......................................................................... 59 4.1 The Flow of Information from RAWA to the United States War in Afghanistan ......................... 63 4.2 RAWA and their Work on the Chain ............................................................................................ 64 4.3 Deviations From RAWA’s Zarmeena Video Navigating the Genre Chains .................................. 65 4.3.1 CNN and Co-opting of RAWA’s Message ................................................................................. 65 4.3.2 United States Congressional Hearing: Defining Priorities for Afghan Women ........................ 66 v 4.3.3 The President of the United States and the 2002 State of the Union Address ........................ 70 4.3.4 The Digital Texts of RAWA: Answering Questions ................................................................... 70 4.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 71 CHAPTER 5: LOOKING INTO THE OTHER: CNN’S EXPLORATION OF THE PLIGHT FOR WOMEN IN AFGHANISTAN ............................................................................................ 72 5.1 The issues of the veil for Muslim women pervasive in the text of the video. ............................. 78 5.2 CNN’s Framing of Resistance for Women in Afghanistan ........................................................... 83 5.3 Defining the Constructions of Freedom ...................................................................................... 87 5.4 Presenting a Frame of Afghan Women to the United States Population ................................... 88 CHAPTER 6: RAWA AND THE DEBATE ABOUT AFGHAN WOMEN’S ISSUES IN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE HEARINGS ....................................................................... 90 6.1 Representations of the veil ......................................................................................................... 91 6.2 The Frame of Resistance ............................................................................................................. 96 6.3 Asserting Definitions of Freedom ............................................................................................... 98 6.4 Connections to participatory citizenship .................................................................................. 103 CHAPTER 7: REINTERPRETATIONS OF RESISTANCE AND FREEDOM IN THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS ...................................................................................................... 105 7.1 Resistance Reframed: The United States Helping Afghan Women Defy the Taliban ................ 106 7.2 Freedom Asserted through the United States Presidential Frames .......................................... 109 CHAPTER 8 – RAWA SPEAKS FOR THEMSELVES ........................................................... 114 8.1 Documents Reviewed ............................................................................................................... 116 8.2 Views on Veiling ........................................................................................................................ 117 8.3 RAWA Defining Resistance in Contrast to Local and International Frames .............................. 119 8.4 Definitions of Freedom ............................................................................................................