UNIVESITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO The Object of “Rights”: Third World Women and the Production of Global Human Rights Discourse A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Eth nic Studies by Julietta Y. Hua Committee in charge: Professor Yen Le Espiritu, Co -Chair Professor Denise Ferreira da Silva, Co -Chair Professor Laura Hyun-Yi Kang Professor David Pellow Professor Lisa Yoneyama 2006 ii Copyright Julietta Y. Hua, 2006 All rights reserved. iii The dissertation of Julietta Y. Hua is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm: Co -Chair Co -Chair University of California, San Diego 2006 iii iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page ……………………………………………….…..iii Table of Contents ……………………………………………….. iv Acknowledgements ………………………………………………vi Vita, Publications, and Fields of Study …………….…………...vii Abstract …………………………………………………………viii I. Speaking to Difference: Reconciling Other’s Human Rights and Tracing Modern Power ...………………………………………....1 A. The “Logic of Exclusion” and the “Politics of Difference” ….10 B. The “Transparent ‘I’” and His Other ..…………………….….15 C. The Recuperation of the Modern Myth …...………………….21 D. The Intersection of Gender and Racial Power: Situating Asian American Difference ………………………………………… ....24 E. Methodology …………………………………………….…....27 F. Chapter Preview ………………………………………….…...31 II. When Are Women’s Rights Human Rights? …………………....40 A. Consolidating “Feminist” Concerns: The 1990s United Nations Conferences ……………………………………………………...44 B. Historicizing Exclusion, Conflating Bodies, and the Intersection of Difference …………………………………………………….49 C. Problematizing Human Rights ……………………………….58 D. Concluding Remarks: Looking Ahead ……………………….75 III. Saving the Future of Morality: Trafficking in Other Women and the US as Global Exemplar ………………………………... …...81 A. The Limits of Women’s Human Rights: The Conditions of Representation …………………………………………………...85 B. The Limits to a Victim -Agency Paradigm: The Conditions of Subjectivity ……………………………………………………...91 C. Trafficking as the Moral Problem of Others ………………..101 D. Cleaning Up After Human Trafficking: Cleaning Lady and Intersectionality ………… ……………………………………...113 E. Constituting the US as the Globe’s Moral Exemplar: Deploying the Rhetoric of Slavery…………………………………………126 iv v F. Recuperating the Myth of Universality: A Moral Imperative.134 IV. Constructing American Exceptionalism Through China’s One Child Per Couple Policy: The Limits of Race …………………140 A. The “Politics of Difference” and the (Il)logic of Identity …..143 B. Background on the One Child Per Couple Policy and US/China Relations ……………………………………………………….147 C. Reproductive Self -Determination as a Global Mandate ……150 D. The Difference Culture Makes: The Moral Failure of the One Child ……………………………………………………………155 E. Salvation and the Birth of the Future: Abandonment and Adoption ……………………………………………………….167 F. A Question of Morals: Concluding Remarks ……………….196 V. Troubling Muslim Difference: Translation and the Limits of Speech ………………………………………………………….200 A. Letting Her Speak for Herself ………………………………203 B. Feminists, Muslim Women and Freedom …………………..210 C. Translating the Qur’an: Enabling a Muslim Fem inist Subject …………………………………………………………………..240 D. Translating Human Rights: Locating Muslim Particularity in the Global …………………………………………………………..251 E. Translating Global Multiculturalism and the “Problem” of Interpretation …………………………………………………...255 F. Conclu ding Remarks ………………………………………..262 VI. Conclusion: Saving Human Rights? …………………………...267 References ……………………………………………………...282 v vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many thanks to all who made the completion of this dissertation possible. Special thanks to La ura Kang, who was kind enough to share her wisdom and support across the UC campuses divide. Her early intellectual guidance was not only invaluable, but also pivotal to shaping the feminist commitment of the dissertation. Special thanks also to Lisa Yoneyama and David Pellow, who have continued to be generous with their time over the many years they have been committed to this dissertation. Brett St. Louis, though left officially unacknowledged, provided invaluable guidance in the early drafts of the dissertation. Without the friendship and support of my wonderful cohort – Lilia Fernandez, Denise Khor and Grace Kim – this dissertation would not be possible. Special thanks to Grace for keeping my mind sharp, and pointing me to the United Nation’s public service announcements. Many thanks also to Neel Ahuja, Jinah Kim and Jake Peters for helping me through early drafts. I am especially indebted to Jinah for the title of this work, and to Jake for his long hours of free labor all in an effort to help complete this dissertation. While my name is attached to this dissertation, it is undoubtedly also the work of Yen Le Espiritu and Denise Silva, two very brilliant mentors and advisors who have, since the beginning, been committed to both my intellectual gr owth and emotional well being. For guiding me on this journey, I am eternally grateful. vi vii VITA 1999 B.A., Women’s Studies, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities B.A., Political Science, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities 2000-2001 Teach ing Assistant, Department of Ethnic Studies, University of California, San Diego 2002 M.A., Ethnic Studies, University of California, San Diego 2001-2004 Instructor, Muir College Writing Program, University of California, San Diego 2004 (fall) Lecturer, Department of Ethnic Studies, University of California, San Diego 2005 (SSII) Lecturer, Department of Ethnic Studies, University of California, San Diego 2005-2006 Assistant Director, California Cultures in Comparative Perspective, University of California, San Diego 2006 Ph.D., Ethnic Studies, University of California, San Diego vii viii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Object of “Rights”: Third World Women and the Production of Global Human Rights Discourse by Julietta Y. Hua Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnic Studies University of California, San Diego, 2006 Professor Yen Le Espiritu, Co -chair Professor Denise Ferreira da Silva, Co -chair The US “women’s rights as human rights” doctrine continues to represent campaigns for international women’s rights through the stories and images of Asian, African, and Latin American women. As both the idea of global human rights, and the place of women within the context of international human rights discourse become more powerful in framing a U.S. national identity, it seems that only certain issues (located in Other places that are always assumed to be “behind”) come to define the US women’s human rights campaign. Even while human rights and feminist literatures recognize the fallacy of assuming a “western gaze” in evaluating Other people and places, the reality of viii ix the representation of women’s human rights issues, asylum law, and US governmental aid for victims of violations continue to place Third World women in a double -bind, where she must arg ue her own backward -ness in order to garner aid. This dissertation asks, “Why and how do certain issues become synonymous with ‘women’s human rights’ while others do not? What is the role of liberal feminist discourses in articulating what and who consti tutes human rights? How and why do the women of ‘Other’ places become the central ‘victims’ of human rights violation?” This dissertation examines three case studies – the representation of Southeast Asian women victim to sex trafficking as hapless “v ictim,” the signification of the woman/girl “victim” to China’s One Child Per Couple policy as trapped by her “traditional” cultural conditions, and the casting of Muslim women “victim” to Islamic cultural laws as needing to be “saved” in order to protect the idea of a global democracy. The analysis engages with the politics of identity, particularly in terms of how the “logic of exclusion” works to inform the US feminist mobilization around the issues identified as women’s human rights violations. Each case study outlines the ideological processes at work in defining who constitutes the “victim” of women’s human rights violations – that is, the discursive effects that allow the US to imagine itself as having progressed beyond the problems of patriarchy an d racism. ix I. Speaking to Difference: Reconciling Other’s Human Rights and Tracing Modern Power Iran did nothing to welcome her [Homa] or to appreciate her. She was mired in a society that placed little value on the rights of women. No matter what she did or who she became in Iran, she was destined to always be no more than a woman in a country in which being a woman meant little. Throughout her life, she fought to change the inequities and reverse the injustices faced by all people in Iran. In the end, however, obstacles proved too powerful for her to overcome. Those obstacles took the form of a husband that seemed apathetic to his wife, a government that treated her with disrespect, and a combination of influences that affected her life from the day she was born until the day she died. – Parvin Darabi (1999, 16) In 1999, Parvin Darabi and Romin Thomson published their book Rage Against the Veil: The Courageous Life and Death of an Islamic Dissident. The book chronicles the life of the co -author’s si ster, Dr. Homa Darabi, who tragically set herself on fire in a suburb of Tehran out of frustration with the government and culture of Iran that continued to deny her. For Parvin Darabi the death is explained as a culmination of her sister’s frustration wi