Women-Loving-Women in Africa and Asia

502 Pages·2011·5.47 MB·English

WOMEN-LOVING-WOMEN
IN AFRICA AND ASIA
TRANS/SIGN
REPORT OF RESEARCH FINDINGS
EDITED BY SASKIA E. WIERINGA
WOMEN-LOVING-WOMEN
IN AFRICA AND ASIA
TRANS/SIGN
REPORT OF RESEARCH FINDINGS
EDITED BY SASKIA E. WIERINGA

AMSTERDAM/DEN HAAG 2011
RIEK STIENSTRA FUND
KARTINI ASIA NETWORK
HIVOS
MAMA CASH
THE FORD FOUNDATION
Preface
This report is the result of the work of an amazing group of women from Asia and Africa
who came together to research into the conditions of women in same-sex relations in their
countries. With great determination and courage they set about revealing the many obstacles,
humiliations and indignities these women face. They uncovered not only pain, invisibility
and silence, but also the pleasures of bonding and the beauty of love.
As a team we learnt from each other by sharing our experiences, hopes and frustrations. We
all grew in this process, personally, and in the work all of us are doing to make the planet a
safer and more welcoming space for women living a life with same-sex desires and love. We,
the coordinators of this project, dedicate this report in the first place to all the brave
researchers who carried out the painstaking work of documenting the often invisible lives of
women in same-sex relations. Thank you all for your courage, your skills and the dedication
you brought to this project. Secondly the report is dedicated to all the narrators with whom
our researchers worked, who shared their experiences with us and from who we learnt the
enormous diversity of the world of women- loving-women.
This report is also a testimony to the vision of Riek Stienstra. Not only was she a pioneer in
the struggle for lesbian and gay rights in The Netherlands, she also realised that there was a
deep need for research on the lives of lesbian women elsewhere in the world. She actively
supported the chair on Gender and Women’s Same-Sex Relations at the University of
Amsterdam, the first chair on the topic worldwide. Since 2006 Saskia Wieringa is the holder
of this chair. Riek bequeathed her estate to partly fund this project. We regret it deeply that
she is no longer with us and is unable to read the results of this research. We also thank Paul
Jansen from Hivos and Esther Vonk from Mama Cash who shared Riek’s vision and made it
possible to release the funds to the Kartini Asia Network, which is co-ordinated by
Nursyahbani Katjasungkana. This Network provided the other half of the research funds,
supported by the research work carried out with the help of funding from Hivos (again!) and
the Ford Foundation. Barbara Klugman has to be especially mentioned for her unwavering
faith in the Kartini Asia Network. For this project we set up the Trans/sign network in which
apart from those who are already mentioned above also Evelyn Blackwood participates. We
are also indebted to the co-ordinators of the sexuality theme of the Kartini Asia Network,
Abha Bhaiya and Tesa de Vela. Further we thank Manda Gryba, who managed to edit the
different final reports into a coherent whole. Above all we, as co-ordinators of the research
process, thank each other for our mutual support and dedication to the principle that research
and advocacy together, if implemented with due respect for the specificities of each can work
towards eliminating the many injustices women and particularly women with same-sex
desires, experience.
This report only details the research process and summarizes the findings. As such it deals
only with the first phase of the process. The researchers of this project all have ambitions to
produce more products, such as books, brochures, articles, films, or other audiovisual items,
to continue the fight for sexual justice.
Nursyahbani Katjasungkana
Saskia Wieringa
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Riek Stienstra (1942–2007)
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Contents
1. TRANS/SIGN: An introduction
Saskia E. Wieringa 5
2. Report on the factors contributing to the marginalization of lesbian, bisexual
and women who have sex with women (LBWSW) community in Botswana
Lorraine Setuke 29
3. Oral history of activism, formal and non-formal organizing by women-loving
women and transgender organizing in Central Asia
Anna Kirey 92
4. VioMap: Final Report by Sappho for Equality Kolkata
Dr. Subhagata Ghosh 124
5. Breaking the binary: Understanding concerns and realities of female
assigned/born persons across a spectrum of lived gender identities
Chayanika Shah, Raj, Shalini Mahajan and Smriti Nevatia 182
6. To support activism: Building communication among lesbian community
in Surabaya
Siti Mazdafiah 241
7. Female transgender: Gender & sexual identities among transgender female
to male persons in Jakarta
Sri Agustine, Evilina Sutrisno, Lily Sugianto, Ignatia Maria, Irene
Augustine, Sigit and Afank Mariani 299
8. Surfacing Lesbians, Bisexual Women and Transgendered People’s Issues in the
Philippines: Towards Affinity Politics in Feminist Movements
Tesa Casal de Vela, Mira Ofreneo and Marion Cabrera 346
9. Women-loving-Women: Issues and concerns in Bangladesh perspective
Hasna Hena 400
10. “Lesbian Lives Unlimited”; The psycho-social-sexual experiences of lesbian
women in Tshwana (Pretoria): A qualitative analysis
Delene van Dyk 428
11. From the horse’s mouth: Township perceptions on the Black Butch Lesbian
identity
Noman Pakade 464
12. Stories to tell: A queer women’s oral history in Sri Lanka
Kaushalya Perera 487
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Chapter 1
TRANS/SIGN: An introduction
Prepared by:
Prof. Dr Saskia E. Wieringa
Coordinator TRANS/SIGN
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Executive Summary
The call for this research resulted in 27 applications, of which 11 projects were selected, three
in Southern Africa, one in Central Asia and seven in other Asian countries. The funds for this
project came from the Riek Stienstra fund (jointly managed by Hivos and MamaCash) and
the Kartini Asia Network (KAN), the sexuality theme of which was funded by the Ford
Foundation and Hivos. The research was academically coordinated by Saskia Wieringa, who
holds the chair of Gender and Women’s Same-Sex Relations Crossculturally at the University
of Amsterdam and managed by Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, the coordinator of KAN. As the
funds were very limited for such an ambitious project, from the start the groups managed
their work carefully. Much research was done voluntarily, the money being spent only on
expenses, such as travelling to remote parts of the country to collect interviews.
Some researchers had already received some training on sexuality studies and oral history, for
instance, through the three training courses the KAN network conducted in India and
Indonesia. For most this was the first research experience on women’s same-sex relations,
and for all oral history was a novel technique. The research team first came together in Hanoi,
April 2009, in the framework of the biannual conference of the International Association for
the Study of Sexuality, Society and Culture, in which the coordinators of the sexuality theme
of the KAN (Abha Bhaiya, Tesa de Vela and the TRANS/SIGN research coordinator)
participate in various functions (the TRANS/SIGN research coordinator is a past president).
In Hanoi the researchers received preliminary training on theories of sexuality and fieldwork
techniques, such as oral history and participant observation. The outlines of the research
plans were drafted based on the unique needs of each group. Thereafter, the coordinator and
the researchers maintained contact through email. First, the research designs were completed,
halfway a progress report was produced, and throughout the year experiences were shared.
Major themes in the research were female masculinity, the silencing and invisibility of
Women-Loving-Women (WLW), and attempts at organizing on the basis of non-normative
sexualities. An overriding research theme was violence. More than 300 participants were
interviewed in 14 different languages. In the course of this project, one lesbian women’s
organization was set up (Surabaya). In Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Central
Asia, the focus of the investigation was on organizing WLW. In three countries, Bangladesh,
Botswana and Sri Lanka, this was the first research done on lesbian women. The projects in
Jakarta and Johannesburg focused on women who in various ways identified as masculine,
whereas the Mumbai project focused on the multiple gendered realities of people born
female. The researcher in the Pretoria project collected stories of lesbian women who faced
mental distress.
In September 2010 the final workshop was held in Pretoria. Research results and the
methodology used were shared. A three year advocacy plan on the basis of the research
findings was drafted.
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Contents
Executive Summary.............................................................................................................6
Contents .............................................................................................................….............7
Background of TRANS/SIGN ............................................................................ ....... …...8
1. Introduction........................................................................................................…. …...9
1.1. Justification...........................................................................................9
1.2. Objectives...........................................................................................10
1.3. List of accepted proposals...................................................................10
1.4. Schedule of activities..........................................................................12
1.5. Hanoi workshop..................................................................................13
1.6. Research process.................................................................................13
2. Methodology ........................................................................................................... ….14
3. Major findings................................................................................................................16
4. Advocacy plans..............................................................................................................18
5. TRANS/SIGN as a research group................................................................................22
5.1. Ethical conditions and concerns..........................................................22
5.2. Academics...........................................................................................23
5.3. Other collective proposals...................................................................23
6. Evaluation......................................................................................................................24
Appendices .................................................................................................................... ...25
1. Chair of Gender and Women’s Sam Sex Relations Crossculturally......25
2. Description of partners...........................................................................26
References..........................................................................................................................28
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Background of TRANS/SIGN
TRANS/SIGN, a global network for the study of trans/sexualities crossculturally, was set up
in 2008 to promote the study of trans/sexualities. Its coordinators are Prof. Dr Saskia E.
Wieringa, chair (University of Amsterdam and Kartini Asia Network), Prof. Dr Evelyn
Blackwood (Purdue University, USA), Nursyahbani Katjasungkana (Kartini Asia Network,
Indonesia), Esther Vonk (Mama Cash, the Netherlands), and Paul Jansen (Hivos, the
Netherlands).
TRANS/SIGN is a network of academic scholars, policy advocates and research-minded
activists. The composition of its steering committee reflects these three streams. Its two major
institutional partners are the Kartini Asia Network, which has its secretariat in Jakarta, and
the Riek Stienstra Foundation, which is located in The Netherlands and which in turn is a
cooperation between the Hivos Foundation and MamaCash. The secretariat of TRANS/SIGN
is located in Jakarta, in the Kartini office. The present chair of TRANS/SIGN is also the
present secretary of the Board of the Kartini Asia Network.
The mission of TRANS/SIGN is to stimulate and implement social science research linked to
advocacy on same-sex (lesbian), transgender and queer sexualities and genders (female-
bodied or female-born), working from a women’s/human/sexual rights perspective. It also
aims to build an international community of researchers and research-minded activists around
these issues with the objectives of stimulating the exchange of information on research and
advocacy and of encouraging high quality research through enhancing the research capacities
of all involved.
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1. Introduction
1.1. Justification
The past decades have seen the development of a women’s human/sexual rights discourse, as
well as an increasing struggle by same-sex or transgender/transsexual communities for their
rights. Scholarship on these issues is growing, but in many instances it is still marginalized,
particularly for female-bodied persons. Even as a global gay movement has brought increased
visibility and attention to gays, lesbians, and transgendered people, it has erased the
multiplicity of same-sex and queer identities and subjectivities across the world. This erasure
is even more detrimental to women/female-bodied individuals because the expectation of a
homogeneous gay culture neglects the differences that operate on female bodies to produce
their identities and subjectivities.
The Chair on Gender and Women’s Same-Sex Relations Crossculturally at the University of
Amsterdam, the first of its kind globally, was created in 2006 to address the erasure and
invisibility of female-bodied sexualities and genders. It is occupied by the present chair of
TRANS/SIGN.
TRANS/SIGN interrogates the construction of sexual normalcy or heteronormative
orthodoxy in a global world and promotes advocacy to increase the agency of those who
oppose compulsory and normative heterosexuality. Heteronormativity works in a double-
edged way. It disciplines those inside and it marginalizes and stigmatizes those outside of its
borders. Non-heteronormative persons see themselves in relation to the heteronormative
society that excludes them, but rarely do they analyze the commonalities in the strategies by
which they are 'othered', both from a crosscultual perspective and from the perspective of
other sexually marginalized people.
TRANS/SIGN supports research that addresses the ways same-sex (lesbian), transgender, and
queer sexualities and genders (female-bodied or female-born, hereafter trans) identities and
subjectivities are constructed; their social, economic, sexual, and religious agency; and the
embodiment of that agency, as well as the role of the state, religion, and NGOs in its
production. The power of ‘normalcy’, or heteronomative orthodoxy, and the symbolic
violence this entails for these marginalized persons needs to be analytically deconstructed in
order for effective actions to be built. Relatedly, the possibilities of social and sexual agency
will be explored, particularly as it concerns resistance that exceeds the bounds of the socio-
cultural context in which heteronormativity is lived. Ultimately the research done through
TRANS/SIGN will contribute to the struggle for sexual rights for marginalized groups, as
well as for those living within the norm.
The title of the present research project: Researching Women-Loving Women in Africa and
Asia. This report covers the first activity of TRANS/SIGN: a research/advocacy project in
Asia and Africa with groups working on women’s/sexual rights issues. The research phase of
this project was carried out in the years 2009-2010. As an outcome of this project a three
years advocacy phase is proposed which is outlined below.
A second activity is the bringing out of a book on Female Masculinities. Some of the
researchers of the present project will contribute chapters to this book. Another outcome of
this research, in line with the objectives of TRANS/SIGN, is increasing the visibility of
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