Identity and its Discontents: Women and the Nation

Medicalization Discourse and Modernity: Contested Meanings Over Childbirth in Contemporary Turkey

“…Women were regarded as the symbols of the land and boundaries of the nation, as well as agents that would nurture and reproduce the seeds of the nation. Indeed, the symbolic significance attributed to motherhood and the concern over the reproductive sovereignty of a nation are not uniquely confined to Turkey's nation-building process (Kandiyoti, 1991). For example, Halkias (2003) examines how reproduction and national identity relate to each other in the context of Greece, and argues that nationalist discourses succeeded in making women internalize the reproductive policy of "having at least one child."…”

Electronic Iran - The Cultural Politics of an Online Evolution

“…Making steady dents in the vast literature on nationalism, feminist scholars have brought attention to the centrality of gender in the construction of nationalism and national identity (Kandiyoti 1991;Kandiyoti 2000;Nagel 1998;Walby 1996;Yuval-Davis 1997). Similar inroads have been made in scholarship on Iran: a number of works cover historical and recent formulations of the nation, national identity, and nationalism using analysis that highlights the role of gender (De Groot 1993;Moallem 2005;Najmabadi 1998;Najmabadi 2005).…”

Gender, protest and political transition in the Middle East and North Africa

“…Women's behaviour and appearance is considered to be symbolic of the national/religious/ethnic community (Kandiyoti 1991) The apparent increase in violence against women by agents of the state or hired thugs is often a counter-revolutionary strategy to 'break the will' of movements calling for political and social change. In Syria, government forces and pro-government militia have used rape as a weapon to break the opposition and civilian support for it (Nasar 2013).…”