Kabul Carnival
THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE
Tobias Kelly, Series Editor
A complete list of books in the series is available from the publisher.
KABUL CARNIVAL
Gender Politics in Postwar Afghanistan
Julie Billaud
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS
PHILADELPHIA
Copyright © 2015 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher.
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Billaud, Julie, author.
Kabul carnival : gender politics in postwar Afghanistan / Julie Billaud.
pages cm — (The ethnography of political violence)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8122-4696-4 (alk. paper)
1. Women—Afghanistan—Social conditions—History—21st century. 2. Nationalism and feminism—Religious aspects—Islam—History—21st century. 3. Postwar reconstruction—Afghanistan. 4. Public spaces—Afghanistan—History—21st century. 5. Violence against women—Afghanistan—History—21st century. I. Title. II. Series: Ethnography of political violence.
HQ1735.6.B55 2015
305.409581—dc23
2014040354
Carnival is not a spectacle seen by the people; they live in it, and everyone participates because its very idea embraces all the people. While carnival lasts, there is no other life outside it. During carnival time life is subject only to its laws, that is, the laws of its own freedom. It has a universal spirit; it is a special condition of the entire world, of the world’s revival and renewal, in which all take part. Such is the essence of carnival, vividly felt by all its participants.
—Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World
CONTENTS
Prologue: “If Only You Were Born a Boy”
Introduction: Carnival of (Post)War
PART I. PHANTOM STATE BUILDING
Chapter 1. Queen Soraya’s Portrait
Chapter 2. National Women’s Machinery: Coaching Lives in the Ministry of Women’s Affairs
Chapter 3. Public and Private Faces of Gender (In)Justice
Chapter 4. Moral Panics, Indian Soaps, and Cosmetics: Writing the Nation on Women’s Bodies
Chapter 5. Strategic Decoration: Dissimulation, Performance, and Agency in an Islamic Public Space
Chapter 6. Poetic Jihad: Narratives of Martyrdom, Suicide, and Suffering Among Afghan Women
Conclusion: The Carnival Continues
PROLOGUE
“If Only You Were Born a Boy”
“As I grew up, my mother constantly repeated to me: ‘if only you were born a boy.’ So I eventually became one.” This is the pragmatic way in which eighteen-year-old Zahra explains how she became Zia. Zahra rents a small room in a family house located next to Kabul Polytechnic University. When, a couple of years ago, her parents divorced and remarried, none of them wanted her around anymore. Mistreated by her stepfather, neglected by her mother, and with no relatives to take care of her, she set out to take her future into her own hands and not to rely on anyone. Because of the fact that as a girl she could not enjoy this level of autonomy, she cut her hair short, purchased boys’ clothes, changed her gender identity, and found herself a job in a small cultural organization. With her big hazel eyes, her confident appearance, and her direct way of staring at people, Zahra—who becomes Zia as soon as she steps outside the house—easily passes herself off as a handsome young man.
I met Zahra through my friend Fawzia who boards at the National Women’s Dormitory. Fawzia befriended Zahra at the self-defense class they both attend once a week at Bagh-e Zanana, the women’s park. The walls of Zahra’s bedroom are covered with posters of Jackie Chan and Bollywood movie stars. As she casually lights up a cigarette, tipping her head back to blow away
