Afghanistan Remembers: Gendered Narrations of Violence and Culinary Practices

by Parin Dossa

Although extensive literature exists on the violence of war, little attention has been given to the ways in which this violence becomes entrenched and normalized in the inner recesses of everyday life. In Afghanistan Remembers, Parin Dossa examines Afghan women's recall of violence through memories and food practices in their homeland and its diaspora. Her work reveals how the suffering and trauma of violence has been rendered socially invisible following decades of life in a war-zone. Dossa argues that it is necessary to acknowledge the impact of violence on the familial lives of Afghan women along with their attempts at recovery under difficult circumstances. Informed by Dossa's own story of family migration and loss, Afghanistan Remembers is a poignant ethnographic account of the trauma of war. She calls on the reader to recognize and bear witness to the impact of deeper forms of violence.

192 pages, Paperback

First published July 17, 2014

Reviews

[Nina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting (academic) book on how violence does not only exist in the country that one flees from, but also in the country one finds refuge in. Institutional violence, lack of understanding peoples' past and only focusing on the "here" rather than the "there", which refugees carry with them at all times, all feed into their pain. Taught me some more about Afghanistan and the refugee system in Canada!

[Amanda Micek]

anthro of gender