Transgressing boundaries of Izzat: Second-generation Punjabi women’s stories of survival and resistance  to “honour” and gender-based violence in their everyday lives

Mandeep Kaur Mucina
MSW, PhD Candidate & Lecturer, Dalhousie University, School of Social Work

Wednesday, 24 September 2014, 12:30-2:00pm
621 Mackinnon, University of Guelph

Light refreshments will be served
                                          
To register visit: goo.gl/3jAeJx [1]


ABSTRACT
South Asian Women living in Canada face a conundrum of naming an experience that is connected to their ethnicized family and community, yet has the potential to be judged and taken up by a colonial, Orientalist, culturally racist gaze in the Western world. Looking specifically at “honour” related violence and the discourses that surround the cultural construct of izzat (translated into English as meaning “honour” or reputation), there is a convergence of patriarchies that second-generation Punjabi women experience in their everyday lives. For my PhD research I utilized a feminist-autoethnographic inquiry to examine the discourses of izzat (honour) by gathering stories of women who are survivors of displacement/excommunication/exiling from their family and community as a result of “honour.” The women’s stories and the counter hegemonic analysis in this research shifts our current engagement with discourses of “honour” and challenges readers to engage in a larger discussion of gender based violence, patriarchy, and second generation women’s everyday engagement with internal and external patriarchies. Furthermore, a participatory action research approach was utilized to move the stories of the women participants to a place of action and to raise consciousness in the Punjabi community, as well as in dominant mainstream society, about the impact of izzat, internal and external patriarchies, and cultural racism on second generation women’s lives.

Organized by: Canada Research Chair in Gender, Justice and Development
Supported by: Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Guelph

Upcoming Seminars:

All seminars will take place on Wednesdays, 12:30-2:00pm, at 621 Mackinnon building, University of Guelph

October, 22
Margaret Walton Roberts
Wilfrid Laurier University

November, 12
Sikhs in Canada: Gender, Family and Identity
Doris Jakobsh
University of Waterloo