Family relations as
“anti-history”
The familial/organic trope is not autochthonous,
but it provides modes of political organization with
the imprimatur of “history” or “tradition.” Invo-
cations of the cultural category “family” utilize the
naturalizing power of ideology (drawing on notions
of blood ties/nature). McClintock links the meta-
phorical equation of nation and family to the evo-
lutionary modes of historical thought that emerged
in the nineteenth century. After 1859 and the
advent of Social Darwinism, the idea of the evolu-
tion of races/nations was conceptualized as a family
tree in which “the family offered an indispensable
metaphoric figure by which national difference
could be shaped into a single historical genesis nar-
rative which naturalized the idea of evolutionary
progress, with the European family as the apogee.
Within this narrative of progress, women were seen
as ‘inherently atavistic,’ as the ‘conservative repos-
itory of the national archaic’” (1995, 359).
The idea of the family as the national archaic was
picked up by (male) secular nationalist reformers,
in ideals about reforms in gender/family relations
as part of the revolutionary social transformation
that was to accompany moves to postcolonial inde-
pendence. However, in many instances, colonial
authorities as well as middle-class reform and
nationalist groups left existing gender relations
largely intact. Whereas colonial authorities did not
tolerate the operation of Islamic law in areas such
as criminal law, it was seen to be appropriate in
family law/family relations. Eickelman and Pisca-
tori comment that in Islamic nations there has been
more resistance to changes in the arena of family
law than in other spheres (1996, 94). (It is also an
area where there is most difficulty in obtaining co-
operation in international law.)
This has contributed to a scenario in which
domestic life is regulated by Islam/custom; for
example Tohidi comments on Azerbaijan in rela-
tion to Soviet rule: “The family thus becomes the
dàr al-Islàm(domain of Islam) to be protected from
the penetration of the dominant ‘other’” (1998,
155). That is, the family (and particularly the
mother) functions as the site of resistance against
assimilation to the dominant culture. So the hierar-
chical structures and male control are reproduced,
in a language of resistance and cultural preserva-
tion. Paradoxically, this has been possible because
the Soviet Union left the Muslim male’s domination
of his private territory – women and the family –
intact (1998, 118). Both secular nationalist and
fundamentalist discourses have invoked ideals of
Islamic morality in social control. Whether or not158 families: metaphors of nation
the state has a civil family code or whether Sharì≠a
is allowed to operate without state intervention be-
come important issues. “In many Third-World
countries, Arab ones included, kinship and com-
munity are crucial organizers of social life. I don’t
see state institutions or civil society operating inde-
pendently of kin-based relations... The people
themselves don’t separate public and private”
(Joseph 1997, 68).Sources
The printed word is inextricably linked to the
genesis of the idea of nation and the achievement of
nationhood (Anderson 1991). Nationalist move-
ments leave volumes of written material but the
development of national consciousness is also tied
to new forms of narration, including ways of nar-
rating the self – rich sources in the form of biogra-
phies and autobiographies as well as novels.The postcolonial female writer is not only involved in
making herself heard, in changing the architecture of
male-centered ideologies and language, or in discover-
ing new forms and language to express her experience,
she has also to subvert and demythologize indigenous
male writings and traditions which seek to label
her... In countries with a history of colonialism,
women’s quest for emancipation, self-identity and ful-
filment can be seen to represent a traitorous act, a
betrayal not simply of traditional codes of practice and
belief but of the wider struggle for liberation and
nationalism (Nasta 1991, xv).Women’s writing can “subvert and question the
‘father tongue’ and make way for a multiplicity of
perspectives” (ibid., xvii). Boehmer suggests it is a
source of counter-symbolic images of gender. Mary
Poovey asks, “Did historically specific national-
isms ...contribute to the normalization of an inte-
riority constituted as trans-individual? Was this
interiority gendered? How does it exist alongside
that constituted by the family?” (cited in Hall 1993,
102). The question is how these iconic images are
brought into play, and how they are challenged.
Fictional writing can be a way to explore this. Does
the icon of the mother have the same meaning for
women as men? “Do nationalist vocabularies not
implicate women in certain paradoxes of identity
and affiliation?” (Boehmer 1991, 4). Boehmer sug-
gests that “where male nationalists have claimed,
won and ruled the ‘motherland,’ this same mother-
land may not signify ‘home’ and ‘source’ to
women” (ibid., 5).
The historical records of nationalism and nation-
alist thinking (like many historical records) are gen-
dered – men are more likely to operate in the public
domain and to leave written records, while in most
countries women’s literacy has lagged behind that