Third World Woman

Above is an image that Steve McCurry took in Afghanistan. It depicts a young afghan girl who is an orphan. After this photo was taken countless Westerner’s were contacting McCurry to adopt this child, and were willing to pay thousands of dollars to do so. For me this image represents the “Other”. It represents how we have created the exotic “Other” and choose to take parts of the “Other” but not other parts. We view this young child as impoverished, in need of our help, we feel we can give her democracy, liberation and free her from the oppressions she faces from her culture. We forget a very important aspect of the picture and that is why is this young girl impoverished, and what is her lived experience and the historical context to the photo?

As it stands today Afghanistan is being transformed into a democratic state, and is at the hands of western imperial powers. It holds a strategic location in this world, and like any other country has been impacted by globalization. Razack discusses how “natives are bound to be ungrateful and are unlikely to stop their savagery unless met with brute force and to keep natives in line, peacekeepers must become violent themselves, as they rape, torture and kill” (Razack, 2004). Razack of course was speaking about peacekeeping forces in Somalia but this depiction can be related to any peacekeeping effort including that of Afghanistan. Although we as Canadian’s are known to the world as peacekeepers we must also be aware of oppressions we too inflict upon the world. In the case of Afghanistan many Afghan women were never thought of by Western feminist movements prior to 9/11. Post 9/11 a lot of talk occurred about this oppressed group of women, it is the job of imperial feminism to be “protective, maternalistic, and believe that only white female intervention can benefit colonized women (Heron, 2004).” As women of the west we forget that Afghanistan for decades has had a Revolutionary Afghan Women’s Association that has fought the plight of the Taliban, women in Afghanistan have died fighting for their rights and fighting against harsh human rights violations. Yet those voices are silenced and our Western voices are heard.

Heron describes the North as “modern efficient, democratic, and free, the South is described with word such as unaccountable, terror, confusion, need of rescue from itself (Heron, 2004).” Words are powerful and when we use this language to describe nations we create stereotypical images of what they represent. Heron urges the interlocking of systems of oppression (Heron). We need to view how systems are interconnected, and how we in the west relate to other parts of the world. It is also important to consider the discourse used to describe marginalized people both within Canada and the world. Foucault explicitly stated “we must conceive discourse as violence” (Foucault, 1999). Discourse is not always innocent, it has a purpose, and much of what we have come to know is directly from discourse we have been taught.

In relating the plight of Afghan women to the agency I worked for I would say there were similarities in how my clients were looked at by individuals from the dominant group. The third world women suffer from “injured identities” as the colonial feminists mark their role in the Empire (Doezma, 2001). Just as Western feminists mark their print on the Empire we as social worker’s mark our print in agencies, client’s lives, policies, and in our day to day practice. My clients experienced “othering” and were also “othered” in discourses. These discourses included the Child Welfare legislations, agency mandates and policies, literature in society, media, as well as educational systems. We are taught how to view pregnant teens, homeless teens, disadvantaged children, and we can subconsciously or consciously bring that into practice with us, just as we can do so on a global level. It is important to realize that we cannot simply divide our practices into treating global issues in one way and local issues in another way. Overall transformation has to work on both levels, as living in a globalized world interconnects us all. In my shelter we had a young girl who came from Sudan, she was in the criminal justice system for attempted murder. Most of the stereotypes that surrounded her were that because she was from Sudan violence was considered alright and she was replicating that in Canadian society. As social worker’s we have to help fight off stereotypes and look at the bigger picture. We cannot simply come up for causality in our client’s circumstances. In being a critical social worker I must voice out my opinions upon hearing stereotypes and help to dismantle stereotypes, by sitting silently I am actually adding fuel to the stereotypes. It is also my responsibility to help create new discourses, change agency mandates, policies to better reflect diversity, acceptance, and strength based approaches, as well to get rid of violent discourses that are evident amongst these documents. My job is not simply to go to work, follow my “role” that is set out by the agency it is to create social change, and if I cannot do that or work towards social change than my education in critical social work practice was pointless. Critical social work practice means connecting theory with practice, and with research, and helping to emancipate marginalized groups as well as to give them a voice. It involves being an educator, an advocate, a helping agent, and a transformer.