Genre et transgressions: Représentation, agentivité, autodétermination is a collective work edited by Azadeh Kian, Tiziano Peccia, and Anastasia-Athénaïs Porret. This publication addresses the complex notion of transgression and its implications for women across diverse national contexts.[1]
Overview
This collective work explores how gender-specific social relations shape identity and behavioral expectations for women. The socially constructed category of femininity often encompasses attributes such as vulnerability, fidelity, passivity, submission to rules, and non-violence within a heteronormative framework. However, gender construction is both a product and a process of representation and self-representation. When social and gender norms are transgressed—through sexuality, the body, desire, single motherhood, or choices that oppose societal and familial expectations—such transgressions are frequently met with severe penalties, threatening to disrupt the social order. [2][3]
Current research tends to emphasize the social causes of women's transgressions or their consequences on those around them, often overlooking the lives and assertive choices of these individuals. This volume offers a platform to present and reflect on recent or ongoing research, providing new insights into individuation strategies, subjectivation, and questions of agency and self-assertion through transgression. Contributors hail from diverse academic backgrounds and geographical contexts, including Algeria, Colombia, France, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Tunisia, Turkey, and Peru.[4][5]
Researchers’ Contributions
The volume features multiple articles that address various dimensions of gender transgressions:
Andrea Marcela Barrera Téllez discusses gendered transgressions through women's involvement in armed political struggle in Colombia, highlighting the dual legal and social transgressions experienced by female combatants.
Fatemeh Karimi examines the early pathways of Kurdish women in Iran within the armed struggle post-Iranian Revolution, detailing how these women navigated rigid gender relations to participate in political violence.
Somayeh Rostampour analyzes gender issues in the Kurdish armed struggle in Turkey, focusing on how PKK women consciously transgress gender norms in their political and military engagements.
Tiziano Peccia examines the intersection of gender discrimination in Italian criminal law, narratives, and media portrayals, often obscuring women's agency both deliberately and unintentionally. He highlights the roles of women in organized crime and the nuanced forms of violence they employ within a patriarchal system.
Anastasia-Athénaïs Porret explores the experiences of women converting to Islam in France and Ireland, employing an intersectional approach to demonstrate their agency in navigating stigmatized religious identities.
Magda Helena Dziubinska investigates how Kakataibo women in the Peruvian Amazon negotiate and transgress gender norms amidst urban migration and educational changes.
Anne Le Bris focuses on single motherhood in Tunisia, examining how women navigate societal stigma and reshape familial identities through strategic representation.
Yamina Rahou analyzes the experiences of single mothers in Algeria, emphasizing their adaptive strategies in the face of social, cultural, and religious stigmas.
Bahar Azadi discusses the subjectivation of trans individuals in Iran, examining their reactions to legal protocols and efforts toward social recognition and de-pathologization.[6]
Conclusion
The articles collectively present a critical and feminist reading of transgression, highlighting its potential to open spaces of agency for women. They underscore the importance of understanding conflicts, violence, and politics from women's lived experiences, offering a new feminist perspective that uncovers agency and strategies for navigating social sanctions and reappropriating power through transgression.[7]
References
Kian, Azadeh; Peccia, Tiziano; Porret, Anastasia-Athénaïs (2020). "Genre et transgressions: Représentation, agentivité, autodétermination." Cahiers du Cedref, 24. doi:10.4000/cedref.1293