Teleologies of emancipation, sense of self, transgressions. Fractures in the reading of violated biographies and action in instances of protection

Abstract

This article considers the processes of culturalization of emancipation at the points where these intersect political asylum.  Central to the discussion are the ways in which the languages of rights, humanitarian, and feminist perspectives encode violence on female refugees as a sedimented practice of their cultures of origin. When faced with subjects who seek protection on instances of violation, the use of an appropriate grammar of violence and a stance in the face of the vicissitudes that have occurred is expected of them.  What happens when violated subjectivities claim an ethics of the self that deviates from the idea of self-determination offered to them, repeatedly transgressing humanitarian and gendered grounds? The text inter-pells the literature that has questioned the status assigned to women differently positioned on the scale of gender privilege and the role assigned, if assigned at all, to their transformative agency. The thread linking the humanitarian exception ascribed to women, the role of sexuality in admission policies, and the cultural codification of morality in humanitarian intervention forms the background that runs through these pages.