Paradoxes of Care: Children and Global Medical Aid in Egypt

209 Pages·2021·3.528 MB·English

by  Rania Kassab Sweis

PA R A DOX ES OF CA R E
Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern
and Islamic Societies and Cultures
PARADOXES OF CARE
Children and Global Medical Aid in Egypt
Rania Kassab Sweis
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
© 2021 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written
permission of Stanford University Press.
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Sweis, Rania Kassab, author.
Title: Paradoxes of care : children and global medical aid in Egypt / Rania
Kassab Sweis.
Other titles: Stanford studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic societies and
cultures.
Description: Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2021. |
Series: Stanford studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic societies and
cultures | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020044966 (print) | LCCN 2020044967 (ebook) | ISBN
9781503628502 (cloth) | ISBN 9781503628632 (paperback) | ISBN
9781503628649 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Child health services—Egypt. | Children—Health and
hygiene—Egypt. | Medical assistance—Egypt.
Classification: LCC RJ103.E3 S84 2021 (print) | LCC RJ103.E3 (ebook) |
DDC 362.19892000962—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020044966
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020044967
Cover photo: Graffiti, Cairo, Egypt. Baher Khairy | Unsplash
Cover design: Christian Fuenfhausen
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Note on Language xi
INTRODUCTION 1
1 SHELTERING CHILDREN 17
2 HEALTHCARE ON PATROL 42
3 (IN)VISIBLE WOUNDS 70
4 DO MUSLIM VILLAGE GIRLS NEED SAVING? 93
5 PROFESSIONAL AMBIVALENCE 124
CONCLUSION 151
Notes 165
References 175
Index 185
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Acknowledgments
I have many people and institutions to thank for contrib-
uting to the development of this book. First and foremost, I wish to acknowledge
the children and global aid workers who appear in the pages that follow. It is to
them that I dedicate this book. They trusted me with their stories, spent valuable
time with me, and taught me much about their lives, all with the utmost grace. In
line with institutional protocols on research with human subjects, all of the names
of people and organizations have been changed in this book to ensure anonymity.
Although I cannot name the children and workers in this book, their kindness,
hospitality, and overall generosity made the entire study possible. Through it, I
hope, they will not be forgotten.
In Egypt, I benefited from the assistance of numerous colleagues and friends,
including Ragui Assaad, Essam Ali, Magda Boutros, Alaa Sabeh, Adel Azer, Ghada
Barsoum, Nadia Zabani, Nihal Elwan, Rana Emam, Radwa El Kady, Fatima Saeed,
Amira Abd El-Khalek, Ehaab Abdou, Ahmed Zahran, Mohamed El Zanaty, Hala
Hattab, Osama M. Hijji, Mahmoud Hamza, Mira Shihadeh, Oumnia Abaza, Alia
Mossallam, Dina Makram-Ebeid, Nora Baraka, Sherine Hamdy, Kyriaki Papa-
georgiou, and Heidi Morrison. Charles Hirschkind and the late Saba Mahmood
opened their Cairo home to me when I needed it and were a source of comfort
and camaraderie. Saba’s illustrious memory lives on. I hope she would have been
proud of this work.
vii
viii Acknowledgments
My passion for ethnographic research first blossomed at the University of Cal-
ifornia at Irvine. As an undergraduate there, I fell in love with cultural anthropol-
ogy thanks to the friendship of Evelyn Almodovar and a dynamic group of scholars
including Victoria Bernal, Leo Chavez, Bill Maurer, and Tom Boellstorff. To this
day, their lessons remain ingrained in my head; they will always be role models.
At Stanford University, my greatest intellectual debts go to Sylvia Yanagisako,
Liisa Malkki, James Ferguson, Matthew Kohrman, and Joel Beinin. In their own
unique styles, they have shaped my thinking and writing immeasurably. I am also
deeply thankful to Paulla Ebron, Miyako Inoue, Kabir Tambar, Barbara Voss, and
Ramzi Salti for providing invaluable mentorship. I was also lucky to have the com-
panionship of brilliant colleagues while at Stanford, all of whom challenged me
and ultimately contributed to this work. They are Hannah Appel, Nikhil Anand,
Elif Babül, Robert Samet, Ramah McKay, Kevin O’Neill, Bruce O’Neill, Brandon
Wolfe-Hunnicutt, Arana Hankin, Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann, Mun Young Cho,
Yoon Jung Lee, Tomas Matza, Tania Ahmad, Kristin Monroe, Sima Shakhsari, Erica
Lorraine Williams, Dolly Kikon, Zhanara Nauruzbayeva, Nadia Geussous, João
Felipe Goncalves, Aisha Ghani, Austin Zeiderman, Maura Finkelstein, Michael
Allen, Silvana Rosenfeld, Fernando Armstrong-Fumero, Jennifer Derr, Patricia
Kubala, and Dina Ramadan.
At Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, I found
a welcoming home among Middle East scholars as I completed a postdoctoral
research and teaching fellowship. Rochelle Davis, Fida Adely, Susan Terrio, and
Laurie King provided nonstop intellectual generosity to this fellow anthropologist,
while Judith Tucker, Osama Abi-Mershed, Samer Shehata, Joseph Sassoon, Ted
Swedenburg, Adel Iskandar, Elliot Colla, Salim Tamari, Rania Kiblawi, and Kelli
Harris helped to make my time at the Center productive and so much fun. For
granting me the time and space necessary to “cook” many of the ideas in this book,
and for allowing me to be part of such a vibrant group of thinkers, I will remain
ever grateful to the Center of Contemporary Arab Studies.
As Bates College, colleagues in the Department of Anthropology, as well as
Senem Aslan, Lisa Maurizio, Áslaug Ásgeirsdóttir, Stephen Engel, and Paul Ea-
son, helped to refine my work while making life in Lewiston, Maine, incredibly
joyous, even during the blizzards. I am especially thankful for Elizabeth Eames.
Her expertise in the anthropology of gender and her unstoppable social activism
gave me something to aspire towards as I navigated my first year as a full-time
professor. Elizabeth continues to inspire me.
Acknowledgments ix
My colleagues in the department of sociology and anthropology at the Univer-
sity of Richmond provided tremendous support as this book took shape. Others
in Richmond gave valuable help as the chapters materialized. They are Erika
Zimmermann Damer, Mariela Méndez, Joanna Love, Julianne Guillard, Kimberly
Brown, Laz Lima, Sara Pappas, Lidia Radi, Rafael de Sa, and Elizabeth Kissling.
I was fortunate to have Ladelle McWhorter as a mentor and friend. The fiercest
feminist philosopher and Foucauldian scholar I know, Del has truly expanded my
theoretical repertoire, making me a braver, more engaged scholar.
Numerous other scholars took the time to read and comment on various it-
erations of the chapters, in writing groups or at professional conferences such as
the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, the Middle
East Studies Association, and the Anthropology of Childhood and Youth Interest
Group. For sharing such useful feedback with me and caring deeply about this
work, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to Aviva Sinervo, Rachael Stryker,
Jennifer Adair, Farha Ghannam, Erica Bornstein, Jessica Winegar, Miriam Ticktin,
Paul Amar, Omar Dewachi, Saʾed Atshan, Faedah Totah, Andrea Wright, Diana
Obeid, and Hussam Timani.
The research on which this book is based was generously funded by the Social
Science Council, as well as various awards from Stanford University, Bates College,
and the University of Richmond. Two anonymous reviewers commissioned by
Stanford University Press improved this book by raising questions and sharing
valuable suggestions. I am so grateful for the time they dedicated to making this
book stronger. The remarkable contributions of the editorial team at Stanford
University Press, and especially Kate Wahl, Editor-in-Chief, cannot be overstated.
My deepest appreciation goes to Kate for ushering this book to completion and
including it in the press’s prestigious Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and
Cultures Series. It is truly an honor to be part of this series.
My life partner, Patrice D. Rankine, has given me all the love and support
anyone could ask for while writing a book. For being my greatest source of encour-
agement each day, for remaining my greatest inspiration on everything related to
social justice, and for being my person through thick and thin, I am profoundly
thankful to him.