Not Born a Refugee Woman: Contesting Identities, Rethinking Practices

Front Cover
Maroussia Hajdukowski-Ahmed, Nazilla Khanlou, Helene Moussa
Berghahn Books, Jun 1, 2008 - Social Science - 336 pages

Not Born a Refugee Woman is an in-depth inquiry into the identity construction of refugee women. It challenges and rethinks current identity concepts, policies, and practices in the context of a globalizing environment, and in the increasingly racialized post-September 11th context, from the perspective of refugee women. This collection brings together scholar_practitioners from across a wide range of disciplines. The authors emphasize refugee women’s agency, resilience, and creativity, in the continuum of domestic, civil, and transnational violence and conflicts, whether in flight or in resettlement, during their uprooted journey and beyond. Through the analysis of local examples and international case studies, the authors critically examine gendered and interrelated factors such as location, humanitarian aid, race, cultural norms, and current psycho-social research that affect the identity and well being of refugee women. This volume is destined to a wide audience of scholars, students, policy makers, advocates, and service providers interested in new developments and critical practices in domains related to gender and forced migrations.

 

Contents

Introduction
1
Section IReconceptualizing Identities
25
Chapter 1A dialogical approach to identity
28
Chapter 2The gender relations of home security and transversal feminism
55
Chapter 3Always Natasha
67
Chapter 4Reconstituting the subject
83
Section IIChallenging Methodologies Challening the Researcher
97
Chapter 5Befriending refugee woman
101
Chapter 10Refugee youth gender and identity
173
Chapter 11Pray god and keep walking
180
Chapter 12We want to talk they give us pills
196
Section IVReviewing Policies
215
Chapter 13Protecting refugee women
219
Chapter 14Social protection of refugee women
228
Chapter 15The gender factor in refugee determination and the effect of gender guidelines
244
Chapter 16Pursuing National responsibility in a post911 world
254

Chapter 6Days you remember
113
Chapter 7War diaspora learning and womens standpoint
135
Chapter 8Being a writer on women violence and war
150
Section IIIRethinking Practices creating spaces for agency
163
Chapter 9The representation of refugee women in our research and practice
166
Notes on contributors
263
References
270
Index
302
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About the author (2008)

Maroussia Hajdukowski-Ahmed is a Professor at McMaster University who teaches in the French Department, the Women’s Studies Program, and at the Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition. As a principal investigator of the McMaster Research Centre for the Promotion of Women’s Health, she conducted studies with immigrant and refugee women, co-authored Women’s Voices in Health Promotion and published essays on dialogism, participatory research, culture and mental health, and on exilic women’s narratives.

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