During the partition, more than twelve million people crossed the border to reach Pakistan or India, soon communal violence roared in which women, out of revenge and hatred, became the victim of...Show moreDuring the partition, more than twelve million people crossed the border to reach Pakistan or India, soon communal violence roared in which women, out of revenge and hatred, became the victim of sexual violence at the hands of the other ethnic community. One of the major issues plaguing women was the widespread abductions of women by men from the other ethnic community in which many women were stuck on the other side of the border. Soon after, an interdominion agreement was drafted to recover abducted women from Pakistan to India and vice versa. In 1949 this agreement was discussed again to be renewed and possibly amended. The Constituent Assembly transcript of this debate that lasted for four days has been used to investigate through critical discourse analysis which roles of women within ethnicity are reproduced and to what extent. This thesis has used the framework from Anthias and Yuval-Davis to define those roles. Women's roles as boundaries, signifiers of difference, and biological reproducers become highly visible in the debate and most of all point to one issue: the lack of autonomy and representation of the voices of abducted women. Moreover, while the distinct roles of Anthias and Yuval-Davis are helpful, they lack a relational approach to the prescribed roles of women and men.Show less
While examining the persistence of partition in ethno-nationally divided polities ranging from the Balkans to the Middle East, the two competing logics of partition literature (ethnic spoils;...Show moreWhile examining the persistence of partition in ethno-nationally divided polities ranging from the Balkans to the Middle East, the two competing logics of partition literature (ethnic spoils; ethnic security dilemma) are limited by their sole focus on military/security or economic factors. To overcome such a theoretical limitation, this qualitative study, which employs a Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA), offers an interpretative account of the discursive elements of enduring partition through an investigation of the rhetoric of Greek-Cypriot elites regarding the presence of Turkish settlers/migrants in Northern Cyprus. Previous research on the “settler problem” emphasizes that it is a question of demographics in both public and elite discourse(s). In contrast, by utilizing the middle-way approach to native-settler relations and the Agambenian state of emergency to explain the generative role of partition and its influence on the rhetoric of elite figures, this study finds that, from 2004 (t = 0) to 2017 (t = 1), Greek-Cypriot elites combined the discursive strategies of demographic imbalance, securitization, and racialization to frame the supposed “settler problem”. This discursive inquiry that probes a purposive sample of primary and secondary textual sources (N = 60) provides a new window into the role of enduring partition in generating the discourse of political elites and counters monolithic understandings regarding the presence of Turkish settlers/migrants. Therefore, providing a framework for future studies that aim to understand the influence of partition on the rhetoric of “native” elites about “non-native” groups both in the island of Cyprus and in other socio-politically divided societies.Show less
