Diaspora och sexualitet : Förhandlingar om kön och sexualitet i ett föränderligt iransk- svenskt kulturellt landskap

• This article is about diaspora. Through an analysis of the narratives of first generation Iranianwomen living in Sweden, I demonstrate how migratory experiences impact sexuality and howand in what ways sexuality is constitutive to the migratory process. By discussing some of thekey subjects raised by the interviewees, such as intimacy in the diasporic space, contradictorygender discourses, the dominating impacts of existing Orientalist stereotypes, and their senseof (be)longing or lack of (be)longing, I examine how the women experience their sexualitythrough the intersecting and sometimes contradictory discourses.By focusing on entangled issues involving subjectivity, sameness, difference, otherness,domination, agency, and marginality, I destabilize essentialist approaches of identity. Withgender and sexuality as the main subjects of the analysis, I discuss how moral values of thewomen regarding (in)appropriate sexual behaviour undergo various transformations. Theytake part in multiple (Iranian and Swedish) discourses and discard others while striving tomake space for themselves ‘inside’ these constraining norms. The women experience adiscrepancy as a result of being thwarted by two seemingly different cultures – while bothcultures construct discourses filled with stereotypes of so-called natives and outsiders.However, living in Sweden, where intersecting racist and sexist discourses come to life on adaily basis, it is actually not a thwarting by ‘two cultures.’ It is, in fact, a merger ofSwedishness with Iranianness (with all their complexities), along with other characteristics. Itis a complexity within the culture(s) in which the women live.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Annan humaniora -- Etnologi (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Other Humanities -- Ethnology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

diaspora

diasporic space

sexuality

iranian women

orientalism

identity

Ethnology

etnologi

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)