Kabul Carnival: Gender Politics in Postwar Afghanistan (The Ethnography of Political Violence)

Kabul Carnival: Gender Politics in Postwar Afghanistan by Julie Billaud (2015) is a breeze of fresh air. Reading this well argued ethnographic book on women’s gender politics in Afghanistan allows for a more sophisticated approach to how we view ‘the other’– the gendered other (Afghan women), as well as the religious other (Muslim Afghans). Despite her “fragile relationships” (p. 22), Billaud’s access to Afghan women’s spaces in the university dormitory, the home and segregated public spaces, and female politicians, allows her to give the reader insight into how Afghan women think, feel, negotiate, and constantly push boundaries of social norms and propriety with tremendous courage and determination (p. 205). She successfully portrays the struggles of women living in a war-torn country in the modern period where women are fully aware of modernity and also their Muslim identity. La jaquette indique: "After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the plight of Afghan women under Taliban rule was widely publicized in the United States as one of the humanitarian issues justifying intervention. Kabul Carnival explores the contradictions, ambiguities, and unintended effects of the emancipatory projects for Afghan women designed and imposed by external organizations. Building on embodiment and performance theory, this evocative ethnography describes Afghan women's responses to social anxieties about identity that have emerged as a result of the military occupation. Offering one of the first long-term on-the-ground studies since the arrival of allied forces in 2001, Julie Billaud introduces readers to daily life in Afghanistan through portraits of women targeted by international aid policies. Examining encounters between international experts in gender and transitional justice, Afghan civil servants and NGO staff, and women unaffiliated with these organizations, Billaud unpacks some of the paradoxes that arise from competing understandings of democracy and rights practices. Kabul Carnival reveals the ways in which the international community's concern with the visibility of women in public has ultimately created tensions and constrained women's capacity to find a culturally legitimate voice." After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the plight of Afghan women under Taliban rule was widely publicized in the United States as one of the humanitarian issues justifying intervention. Kabul Carnival explores the contradictions, ambiguities, and unintended effects of the emancipatory projects for Afghan women designed and imposed by external organizations. Building on embodiment and performance theory, this evocative ethnography describes Afghan women's responses to social anxieties about identity that have emerged as a result of the military occupation. Offering one of the first long-term on-the-ground studies since the arrival of allied forces in 2001, Julie Billaud introduces readers to daily life in Afghanistan through portraits of women targeted by international aid policies. Examining encounters between international experts in gender and transitional justice, Afghan civil servants and NGO staff, and women unaffiliated with these organizations, Billaud unpacks some of the paradoxes that arise from competing understandings of democracy and rights practices. Kabul Carnival reveals the ways in which the international community's concern with the visibility of women in public has ultimately created tensions and constrained women's capacity to find a culturally legitimate voice.--Amazon.com Prologue: If Only You Were Born A Boy -- Introduction: Carnival Of (post)war -- Phantom State Building. Queen Soraya's Portrait -- National Women's Machinery: Coaching Lives In The Ministry Of Women's Affairs -- Public And Private Faces Of Gender (in)justice -- Bodies Of Resistance. Moral Panics, Indian Soaps, And Cosmetics: Writing The Nation On Women's Bodies -- Strategic Decoration: Dissimulation, Performance, And Agency In An Islamic Public Space -- Poetic Jihad: Narratives Of Martyrdom, Suicide, And Suffereing Among Afghan Women -- Conclusion: The Carnival Continues. Julie Billaud. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Offering one of the first long-term on-the-ground ethnographies of Afghanistan since the arrival of allied forces in 2001, Kabul Carnival explores the contradictions, ambiguities, and unintended effects of the emancipatory projects designed for Afghan women and imposed by the international community.