Abstract
During the past decade, women’s and human rights ‘language’ has moved from the margins to the ‘mainstream’ of international law and politics. In this paper, the author argues that while feminists and human rights activists criticise the ‘mainstream’s interpretation of women’s and human rights, ‘we’ do not question what becoming part of the mainstream and the cosmopolitan classes has meant for us. Drawing on examples of how women’s and human rights arguments have been used in the post-conflict state-building process in Afghanistan, the author attempts to show how international women’s rights and human rights advocacy campaigns planned by well-meaning humanitarians in Western capitals can backfire when implemented in politically complex environments.
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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the Centre for Law, Gender and Sexuality at Kent and Keele Universities for hosting me as a visiting scholar before the “Encountering Human Rights” conference. I would also like to thank Stewart Motha for inviting me to participate in the panel “Democracy’s Empire and the Dis-Charge of Human Rights” and Sarah Lamble for unintentionally providing me with the title of the paper. I would like to thank Meryam Aslan, Marianne Olesen and Wiiu Lillesaar for all discussions about gender work in Afghanistan. I would also like to thank all the people who have given me their time and advice during my time in Afghanistan. This article has been prepared within the framework of the research project “Sexualisering av det offentliga rummet: Feministiska perspective på rätt, marknad och kropp”, funded by the Swedish Research Council.
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Dr. Sari Kouvo is a post-doctoral scholar in the Department of Law, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. She is also affiliated with the Center for Global Gender Studies at the University of Gothenburg. Dr. Kouvo has several years experience of working with human rights and gender issues in Afghanistan. The opinions expressed in this article are her own and do not represent opinions of the organisations she has worked for or is working with.
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Kouvo, S. A “Quick and Dirty” Approach to Women’s Emancipation and Human Rights?1 . Fem Leg Stud 16, 37–46 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10691-007-9077-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10691-007-9077-7