‘Reproachable Victims’? Representations and Self-representations of Russian Women Involved in Transnational Prostitution

The article investigates how the concept of victimhood is constructed within debates on transnational prostitution and trafficking, and how representations of victimhood intersect with representations of the person/self, class, ethnicity, gender and nationality. Using research findings based on observation and interviews with women from post-Soviet societies involved in prostitution in Norway, we discuss how the women embrace, resist or rework dominant representations of migrant prostitution and attendant notions of victimhood, as well as how they relate to multiple notions of the person/self, femininity and nation through their handling of the stigma of prostitution     

The potential of history textbooks and curriculum reform in Iraqi Kurdistan within a conflict transformation frame: dealing with the past from a processual and dynamic perspective

As of 2015, Kurds in Iraq remain masters of an autonomous region, considered by many as a de facto state, and important brokers within the Iraqi political arena. Prompted by these ‘gains’, many observers and researchers have been inclined to announce the imminent establishment of a Kurdish state. However, this article argues that scholars should be cautious before pronouncing a complete break between the Iraqi state and the Kurds. It shows from a processual and dynamic approach how and why scholars should go beyond the ‘assimilation versus resistance’ dichotomy in order to better grasp the relations between ‘majorities’ and ‘minorities’ in Iraq and in the Middle East, in general. Yet, acknowledging the present deadlock, it explores the conditions that may allow history textbooks to play a role in easing ethnic relations by rewriting Kurdish history. It could lead to the emergence of a new, collective, albeit multiple, Iraqi history.