Global Journal of Human Social Science, H: Interdisciplinary, Volume 23 Issue 5

© 2023 Global Journals Volume XXIII Issue V Version I Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2023 ( ) H 22 To What Extent Can Body Politics be used to Define Afghan Women's Sexuality as Locations of Power and Control under Taliban’s Rule? A Contemporary Foucauldian Interpretation of Femininity in Body Politics standing of the development challenges Afghan women and the international community face. "Bio-politics" is probably Michael Foucault’s major contribution to the literature on power rooted in sexuality. The concept of “bio-politics” has influenced development studies and other fields in the idea that contemporary State authority governs biological life (Agamben, 1998). Foucault expresses the concept of sovereign power embedded in sexuality in his work “Nietzsche, Genealogy, History” where power is understood as functioning at two poles: human population and human body (Foucault, M., 1984). Accordingly, he analyses traditional forms of power established in “domination practises” offering the concepts of “bio-politics of the population” and “bio- power” (McNay, 1991). The former is concerned with population control by scientific interventions in reproduction, mortality, and illness; the latter with individual body control and domination (Foucault, 2004). To clarify, Foucault claims political order is maintained by the production of “docile bodies”; thus, passive, subjugated, and productive individuals whose sexuality is the focus of micro and macro level power dispersal in social interactions, practices, and structures adopted by the sovereign. Thus, “biopower” acts on our bodies, regulating them through self-discipline, eventually subjugating ourselves. On a more concrete level, schools, hospitals, prisons, and family’s nexus are under the State’s control of disciplining, surveillance, and punishment creating docile bodies integrated in the systems of social controls (Foucault 1981). Foucault's insights on sexuality, power, and knowledge enhance Development studies and related subjects, inspiring new perspectives on political agency, power regimes, and gender expression. Specifically, Foucauldian ideas have expanded the latter feminist works on women’s subjugation. His thesis that power relations are essential to the social sphere and work largely via the human body allows feminists to debate the origins of gender inequality, which are said to be founded on anatomical distinctions caused by social hierarchies (Deveaux, 1994). This draws attention to the destructive consequences of cultural standards of attractiveness, which, according to Braidotti (1989), obstruct women feelings about their bodies, appearance, and social norms. On the one hand, the body is crucial to a feminist explanation of women’s oppression since the construction of gender inequality is built and legitimised on biological sexuality becoming power sites. On the other, feminists pointed out Foucauldian limitations, claiming he overlooks the “gender myopia” traditionally characterised in sociological theories. For instance, Bartky (1988) claims Foucault considers the body as a genderless entity, thus failing to explain why men and women connect to contemporary institutions differently. Bartky's argument of “gender blindness” may be found in Foucault’s work Discipline and Punish (1977), where female bodies are examined without difference from masculine norms (2015). Undoubtedly, the entire contribution of Foucault to power and sexuality illustrates the existing political system, in which societies divide political authority both vertically and horizontally via the emergence of enforcing minute practises based on the sexes of the bodies they control. Foucauldian principles are not only applicable to a wide range of fields, but they are also relevant to the case study presented in this paper. Indeed, the following discussion will focus on the Taliban’s use of power dynamics in the administration of sexuality, which disproportionately affects women. Foucauldian bio-politics eventually tries to explain Taliban’s policies and practises for managing women’s bodies, with the ultimate objective of attaining societal control through micro-level dominance policies (Foucault, and Sheridan, 1977). II. E ducation The absence of education for girls is a significant venue for Taliban bio-politics. Women are excluded from receiving education, from the most basic to the most advanced (Hartley-Blecic, 2001). Despite the Taliban’s declaration that they will open certain educational facilities for females, many schools have been shuttered under their control, encouraging the creation of the docile individuals Taliban can control (Ruttig, 2011). Indeed, women’s lack of schooling becomes a mean of imposing bio-politics via managing Afghan women’s social subordination. Women subjection to Taliban rules requires them to align their bodies to Taliban socio-political systems of power; in Foucauldian words, a scenario explicative of how women's bodies are bio-politically subordinated to Taliban authority by being portrayed as subpar and in need of external control (Foucault, and Rabinow, 1984). The lack of education has also had significant influence on women’s employment, which is exacerbated when widows are involved. Since widowed women are the sole source of income for their families and since many women lack the fundamental knowledge to obtain employment, they have no other option than begging on the streets and sell their personal things to buy food for themselves and their children (Bordo, 2020). Again, the lack of schooling and career opportunities available to women make them vulnerable and subjugated to male superiority, as Taliban's mandate for female illiteracy creates social conduits for male dominance, subjugating and enslaving the inferior via their ignorance (Mottier 2012). Women are denaturalised by their sexuality, becoming docile bodies, perceived as passive, submissive, dependent, and inferior to the rest of society. In other words, Taliban’s intervention in women’s life and their