Abstract
The idea of citizens as rights-bearing bodies continues to be an important political tool for women through which to claim space as legitimate actors who have the right to equality under the law. However, in this process of seeking legitimacy from the state, women’s bodies continue to be entangled between the normalizing and essentializing forces of nationalism which positions them as second-class citizens. Taking the case of a constitutional debate over the right of Nepali mothers to pass on citizenship to their children irrespective of the nationality of the father, this chapter explores how the female body continues to be normalised as a mere biological reproducer of the nation, without equal rights as citizens of that nation. More importantly, the chapter further shows how women’s resistance to such discrimination might rely on the same masculine and exclusionary interpretations of nationalism. The chapter draws from in-depth interviews with key constituent assembly members writing a new constitution for Nepal after the dissolution of monarchy in 2008. The chapter argues how a neoliberal understanding of citizenship goes hand in hand with the neoliberal interpretation of women’s empowerment, which often overlooks the importance of how intersections of different identities affect the lived experiences of different groups of women. In the case of Nepal, this interpretation of citizenship has overlooked intersecting discriminations based on caste, ethnicity and sexual orientation, thus homogenizing the category of “Nepali women” and dictating what a unified agenda for the Nepali women’s movement ought to be. While it is true that the embodied experience of the female body often becomes an entry point for women’s political engagement, the chapter highlights the limitations this might pose. It shows how bodies are often inscribed by dominant political and sociocultural structures in such a way that within the biopolitics of national sovereignty, some (female) bodies might matter more than others
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Agamben, G. (1998) Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Batliwala, S. (2008) ‘Changing Their World: Concepts and Practises of Women’s Movements’. Building Feminist Movements and Organisations, Association of Women’s Rights in Development (AWID).
Becker, S.D. (1999) A Nationality of Her Own: Women, Marriage, and the Law of Citizenship by Candice Lewis Bredbenner. The American Historical Review 104(3): 939.
Butler, J. (1993). Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex”. New York: Routledge.
Canning, K. and S.O. Rose (2001) Introduction: Gender, Citizenship and Subjectivity: Some Historical and Theoretical Considerations. Gender and History 13(3): 427–443.
Chen, C. (2009) Gendered Borders: The Historical Formation of Women’s Nationality Under Law in Taiwan. Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique 17(2): 289–314.
Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990.
Des Chene, M. (1991) Relics of Empire: A Cultural History of Gurkhas, 1815–1987. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Gaige, F.H. (2009) Regionalism and National Unity in Nepal. (2nd edn) Kathmandu: Himal Books.
Gautam, B. (2008) Parityakta Madhes: Likhat Dwara Kaid Nepali Rastriyata. Studies in Nepali History and Society 13(1): 117–146.
Harcourt, W. (2009) Body Politics in Development: Critical Debates in Gender and Development. London: Zed Books.
Hoy, D.C. (2004) Critical Resistance: From Poststructuralism to Post-critique. Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007.
Jha, H.B. (2010) Nepal: Citizenship Laws and Stateless Citizens. Kathmandu: South Asia Analysis Group.
Joseph, S. (2000). Gendering Citizenship in the Middle East. In S. Joseph (Ed.) Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East, Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. 3–30.
Kandiyoti, D. (Last updated 2004) Identity and its Discontents: Women and the Nation, accessed November 10, 2012, http://www.wluml.org/node/482
Lal, C.K. (2012) To be a Nepalese. Kathmandu: Martin Chautari.
Malagodi, M. (2013) Constitutional Nationalism and Legal Exclusion: Equality, Identity Politics and Democracy in Nepal, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
McClintock, A. (1991) “no Longer in a Future Heaven”: Women and Nationalism in South Africa. Transition 51: 104–123.
Nagel, J. (2000) Ethnicity and Sexuality. Annual Review of Sociology 26: 197–133.
Nepal Citizenship Act 1964.
Onta, P. (1996) Ambivalence Denied: The Making of Rastriya Itihas in Panchayat Era Textbook. Contributions to Nepalese Studies 23(1): 213–254.
Parrenas, R.S. (2006) Book Review: The Qualities of a Citizen: Women, Immigration, and Citizenship, 1870–1965. Gender and Society 20: 426.
Pateman, C. (1988) The Sexual Contract. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Peterson, V.S. (2000) Sexing Political Identities/Nationalism as Heterosexism. In S. Ranchod-Nilssonmary and M. A. Tetreault (eds) Women, States and Nationalism: At Home in the Nation? pp. 55–82. London: Routledge.
Republica (2011) Irresponsible Madhesi Front. Republica, Editorial. Apr 27.
Simkhada, D. and T. Pathak (Last updated 2010) Review of the Constituent Assembly Meetings (a webpage of Alliance for Social Dialogue), accessed November 10, 2012, http://asd.org.np/en/transition/constitution/analytical/55-review
Studer, B. (2001) Citizenship as Contingent National Belonging: Married Women and Foreigners in Twentient-Century Switzerland. Gender and History 13(3): 622–654.
Tamang, S. (2011) The Politics of Developing Nepali Women. In K. Visweswaran (ed.) Perspectives on Modern South Asia: A Reader in Culture, History, and Representation, pp. 280–288. West Sussex: Blackwell Publishing.
Tamang, S. (2009a) The Fragile Yam: Nepali ‘Stateness’ and the Renegotiation of Gendered Citizenship’, Social Science Baha Lecture Series XXXII [Audio], accessed October 17, 2015, http://www.soscbaha.org/activities/lectures/lecture-series/114-lecture-series-xxxii.html
Tamang, S. (2009b) The Politics of Conflict and Difference Or the Difference of Conflict in Politics: The Women’s Movement in Nepal. Feminist Review 91(1): 61–80.
Tamang, S. (1997) Women in the Bikase World: Questioning Netri Bad. Studies in Nepali History and Society 2(2): 324–327.
Tønnessen, Liv (2008) Gendered citizenship in Sudan: Competing debates on family laws among northern and southern elites in Khartoum. The Journal of North African Studies, 13:4: 455–469.
United Nations (2011) ‘Citizenship in Nepal: Historical Evolution and the Current Situation in a Typical Tarai district, Banke’, UNRCHCO Field Bulletin (14): 1–6.
UN General Assembly, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, 18 December 1979, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1249, p. 13, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b3970.html (accessed 8 September 2016)
Verloo, M. and E. Lombardo (2007) Contested Gender Equality and Policy Variety in Europe: Introducing a Critical Frame Analysis Approach. In M. Verloo (ed.) Multiple Meanings of Gender Equality: A Critical Frame Analysis of Gender Policies in Europe, Budapest: Central European University Press. 21–49.
Werbner, P. (2005) Political Motherhood and the Feminisation of Citizenship: Women’s Activisms and the Transformation of the Public Sphere. In N. Yuval-Davis and P. Werbner (eds) Women, Citizenship and Difference. London: Zed Books.
Werbner, P. and N. Yuval-Davis (2005) Introduction: Women and the New Discourse of Citizenship. In N. Yuval-Davis and P. Werbner (eds) Women, Citizenship and Difference. London: Zed Books. 1–38.
Young, I.M. (1990) Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Young, I.M. (1995) Mothers, Citizenship and Independence: A Critique of Pure Family Values. Ethics 105(3): 535–556.
Yuval-Davis, N. (2012) The Politics of Belonging: Intersectional Contestations. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
Yuval-Davis, N. (1997) Gender and Nation. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
Yuval-Davis, N. and P. Werbner (2005). Women, Citizenship and Difference. London: Zed Books.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rana, K. (2017). Contesting Bodies in the Constitutional Debate About Citizenship in Nepal. In: Harcourt, W. (eds) Bodies in Resistance. Gender, Development and Social Change. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47780-4_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47780-4_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-47779-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-47780-4
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)