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Suicidal performances: voicing discontent in a girls’ dormitory in Kabul

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 14:10 authored by Julie Billaud
Female suicide in Afghanistan has generally been given economic and psychological explanations. More rarely has its social dimension been analysed. In this paper, I underline the communicative potential of Afghan women’s suicide in the ‘post-war/reconstruction’ context. I highlight its ambiguous symbolic power and its anchorage in the subversive imaginary universe of women’s poetic expression. I argue that while reproducing certain cultural ideas about women’s inherent emotional fragility, women’s suicide also challenges the honour system in powerful ways and opens possibilities for voicing discontent. I qualify female suicide as the ‘art of the weak’ (De Certeau 1980, 6), a covert form of protest, a performance—in the sense of Bauman (2004)—that builds upon traditional popular ‘knowledge’ about gender in order to manage the impression of an audience and make women’s claims audible.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry

ISSN

0165-005X

Publisher

Kluwer

Issue

2

Volume

36

Page range

264-285

Department affiliated with

  • Anthropology Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Sussex Rights and Justice Research Centre Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2018-07-16

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2018-07-16

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