Suchergebnisse

This volume (coming out from a Humboldt Research-Fellowship) critically engages with gender discourses on political participation in Zimbabwe, focusing on how the Bible has been used to deny women political offices in the land. The study's reference to political office needs to be understood broadly, that is, to include women participating in decision-making in their homes, religious institutions, local government, political parties to mention but a few. Dominant religio-cultural discourses on political participation have deployed biblical texts in ways that have shaped Zimbabwe's political terrain to be gendered space. The study uses gender as a category of analyzing political participation in Zimbabwe. The study argues that the challenges women face in their endeavor to participate fully in politics in Zimbabwe are not only embedded in culture, but have also been reinforced by the way biblical interpretation pertaining to women's public roles has been done. It is against this background that this volume seeks to examine the utilisation of the Bible by church leaders who find support from male politicians in a bid to safeguard the space from women perceived as 'dangerous'. In other words, the study endeavours to examine how the Bible has been deployed to control gender discourses on political participation in Zimbabwe. To a large extent, this study shows the centrality as well as the influence of the Bible in shaping gender relations, even in those areas that have to a large extent been perceived as non-religious. This volume, therefore, seeks to open up more political space for women by examining how the everyday is suffused with politics, that is, politics as affecting interactions between individuals and groups thereby facilitating women's participation in politics at all levels. It is envisioned that such a study would contribute greatly to social transformation.

When the Greeks and surviving Armenians of present-day Turkey were forced to leave their homeland in 1922, the movable and immovable property they had to leave behind became known as "abandoned property"(emval-i metruke). In theory, this legal term implied that the absent owners continued to enjoy their property rights and were represented by the state. In practice, however, their houses, fields and belongings were stolen. They were used for the immediate housing needs of the remaining population, distributed among the rich and powerful and sold in public auctions. Initially, only a small part of abandoned property was under control of the new Ankara government, which was eager to use it as a source of revenue for the empty state coffers. Before it could do so, however, the government had to deal with various forms of active and passive resistance: homeless people and refugees squatted "abandoned" homes and fields, and members of parliament initially refused to pass laws that would have legalized government administration of "abandoned" property. From 1924 onwards, the property compensation for among incoming migrants from Greece (the so-called exchangees) threatened the financial interests of the state and pitted the newcomers against the existing population. By focusing on all these aspects of the "abandoned property" question and the multiple forms of resistance against its administration by the state, this book offers unique insights into the social and political history of early republican Turkey.