Zwischen Purdah, Bollywood und Politik – Geschlechterverhältnisse und Transformationsprozesse in Afghanistan

Abstract

Abstract

Between Purdah, Bollywood and Politics – Gender and Transformation in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan the „women’s question“ has always been of great significance for state-building and anti-state resistance. By using gender policies and regulating family laws, the state has attempted to intervene into familial, tribal and religious communities and to impose state control and hegemony over the society. Local communities have, however, defended their autonomy from the state, as well as their control over „their women“. In modified forms, the structural contradictions of the past are affecting and shaping gender politics in the „new Afghanistan“. The externally dependent and internally fractioned Afghani state, which lacks legitimacy and capacity, is being confronted by strong social and political forces that use the „women’s question“ as a powerful symbol for upholding and legitimising resistance to central government. Consequently, today’s Afghan women are striving for empowerment in a complex legal setting, which sees the interaction of formal and informal, global and local, gender norms.