Subjectivity and care in the context of "forced marriage"

Dr Mody will consider ways in which acts of kinship amongst British South Asians such as the suitable arrangement of a child’s marriage can be rejected by the child as an act of care and re-framed as acts of force. Drawing on ethnographic research with women who have experienced “forced marriage”, she will examine the processes through which young women come to re-examine the meanings of marriage and kinship from their own perspective as “survivors”.

In this context, “survivors” of forced marriages see themselves as moving away from caring acts of kin towards the community of care they can provide each other. This paper explores the transitions evident in the different subjectivities of care from kin through to the support provided by the social welfare system in which eligibility and rights need constant iteration and navigation. Subjectivities of care are not stable givens but rather constitute a constantly shifting set of configurations evolving through changing life experiences.