METODOLOGÍA DMAIC

Noting the shifting and structural influences of family, religion, society and culture that operate within the Middle East, issues of agency and capacity arise. Orientalist writing on Middle Eastern women has resulted in women, particularly those from Islamic backgrounds, being othered and homogenised into faceless, powerless subjects at the mercy of patriarchal structures who did not possess any personal capacities (for a critique of this, see: Abu-Lughod, 2002; Margot Badran, 2011; Graham-Brown, 2013; Lazreg, 2015; Meriwether & Tucker, 2018).

Various feminist scholars have corrected this by emphasising Middle Eastern women’s agentive capacity through different conceptualisations and contextualisation’s of agency. For example, Mahmood (2005) and Badran (2009) have conducted research on how women express agency within structures of public piety, through ethical self-making and religious agency, everyday-ness, and joy, desire and fun. Charrad (2011) and Singerman (1996) emphasise the ways in which Middle Eastern women exert agency in everyday settings, but particularly through societal and family networks. Shami's (1996) work on Palestinian communities living in Amman during slum upgrading programmes presents ways in which women transcended community and neighbourhood boundaries to advocate for their family and community, bringing the power of the ‘domestic sphere to bear on the public’, negotiating with government officials to protect family and social relations (p. 22-23). Yadav (2010) examines Yemini women’s engagement in Islamic activism and the ways in which they advocate for rights within ‘segmented publics’ which have enhanced their capacity to be part of political decision- making bodies. Various scholars have examined the advocacy and political involvement of Middle Eastern women in the Arab Uprisings (whilst also lamenting the lack of much needed gendered reforms in the aftermath of protests see: Johansson-Nogués, 2013).

Additionally, Das (2006) and Sanyal (2014) argue that academics and activists frequently frame agency as an ‘escape from the ordinary’, or a ‘grand act of rebellion’ when in reality agency is frequently a ‘descent into the ordinary’. For refugees in particular, this might mean the ability to practise of ordinary activities whilst they are living in a ‘state of exception’ (Sanyal, 2014, p. 570). Thus, for a refugee woman, the freedom to simply leave the house and take her children to school may be agentic

42 and empowering. Furthermore, many women operate and exist within shifting structural contexts where they do not possess social positions of power and influence (particularly refugee women). As such, they utilise their agency in tactical ways in order to enhance their position to the best of their capacity.

These literatures encourage an examination beyond typical Western feminist discourses on ‘how’ agency should look and operate, emphasising an analysis of the cultural contextuality in which agency is practised, which can enrichen and broaden understanding (Shalaby, 2016). Bangstad (2011) notes that feminists often struggle to recognise or conceptualise accounts of feminist agency unless recognised as agentic ‘resistance’. As a result, ‘female agency anchored in other understandings of freedom than those implied by secular feminism becomes void’ (p.29). Mahmood’s (2005) research on women in Islamic Movements pushes against the positioning that Bangstad describes. In her work, Mahmood condemns tacit assumptions that without the structures of the patriarchal family system, all Islamic women would ‘throw off their veils’ and conduct their lives in oppositional confrontation to cultural and religious norms. Rather, her work shows that women often express support for their existing position and role within their society, thus agency is also utilised in support of ongoing cultural and societal norms and structures, not only expressing or exercising an opposition to these. Muhanna (2013) joins these criticisms, arguing that in context of humanitarianism in the Middle East, both Western liberal feminists and humanitarian agencies overemphasise women’s agency as embodied resistance to the active structures of patriarchy in their societies. Muhanna calls for researchers to locate human agency ‘in situ rather than by drawing upon normative, feminist politics’ (p. 29), emphasising that agency is a complex process whereby women negotiate various discourses in a conscious manner in order to best respond to their personal desires (p. 32-33). Thus, women may react to various structures in a range of agentic responses, including their resistance towards, and maintenance of, existing structures.

Kandiyoti’s (1988) work examines decisions by women in classically patriarchal societies to ‘bargain with patriarchy’. She explores women’s engagement with structures that re-emphasise patriarchal norms in society. In these incidences, women ‘bargain’ with patriarchy by engaging with the set rules and scripts regulating gender relations as these provide certain levels of protection and security (p. 286). As such, women re-produce patriarchal norms, frequently to the detriment of their own gender, in order to protect themselves individually. Kandiyoti considers the relevance of how older women in patriarchal societies can reproduce oppressive structures for younger women, as this benefits their own personal power. The only way that elderly women can gain more power and agency, she argues, is through manoeuvring and reproducing the existing patriarchal structures. Thus, women may be involved in ‘tactical’ decision making in order to enhance their agency (de Certeau, 1984).

43 The literature above has shown the diverse and contextual ways in which women engage their agency in forms of resistance against structures, but also how they may not only reproduce, but support and maintain existing structures that are perceived, or framed, as ‘oppressive’, by Western writers. These accounts demonstrate the complexity of individual agency. However, many women live in contexts where they do not ‘start’ in a position of power, or where structures operate in their favour (Cornwall, 2007). This is particularly the case for refugee women. The next section theorises the way in which agency can be understood and analysed in oppressive contexts by introducing de Certeau’s theory of strategies and tactics.