subject: Article Review Rasmussen's `Within the Tent and At the Crossroads: Travel and Gender Among the Tuareg of Niger [print this page] Article Review Rasmussen's `Within the Tent and At the Crossroads: Travel and Gender Among the Tuareg of Niger
The essay clarifies, and examines, two levels of Tuareg interaction: interaction with the outside; interaction from within. Within the larger space, this seminomadic tribe suffers political, social, and economic discrimination as an unempowered minority ethnic group. Within its own social space/the Tuareg boundaries, the female has a dual identity: the Islamic/"rural cultural values" and the modern/"sedentary" related values (Rasmussen 155):
"Women's social prestige and economic independence are challenged by cross-cutting influences of long-standing contradictory forces within Tuareg society, namely Koranic law and its interpretation by male Islamic scholars, and sedentarization and, recently, intruding outside forces. These outside forces include French colonialism, postcolonial central state government, tourism, armed insurrection and exile" (155).
Of note is that the Tuareg female may suffer the burden of multiple discrimatory practices: gender discrimination from within her space; ethnic and gender discrimination from without her space. Personally, I found this particular consideration of great interest as it illustrates the various levels of struggle that the female could occupy herself with. It is possible to forward the claim that the Egyptian lower class female suffers parallel forms of multiple discrimination: gender discrimination from within her social class; social and gender discrimination from without her class. However, the Tuareg female is distinguished through her access to travel, and thus, immediate exposure to outside forces/influences/culture/societal attitudes.
The Tuareg negotiated identity in the form by which "outside forces are mediated and reworked through gender in the home space" (156). The seminomadic lifestyle implies an ever constant need for identity/gender negotiation. They are not isolated within their space as the boundaries between the outside and the inside are in constant ebb and flow. This makes their process of negotiation always `a work in progress;' it is forever unfinished. While the same may be said of national identity and gender identity as a whole, the Tuareg are in a uniqure position of constant renegotiation which, I believe, is comprable to the identity negotiation process of nomadic tribes, and refugees.
In conclusion, the essay was highly interesting and gave one a lot of food for thought. It compliments both Katherine Pratt Ewing and Moira Killoran's article to the extent that they all combine to explicate the process of gender/identity negotiation.
