Paper short abstract:

The paper explores representations of women as they travel across the Middle East and Europe. In particular, it interrogates the intersections of gender performativity, mobility and space.

Paper long abstract:

Instead of concentrating on the analysis of the 'Other' - the migrants and people who live in the margins in Europe, the paper explores the production of representations of women who are in materially and socio-economically privileged positions and who thereby escape the representation of 'a traditional Muslim woman' or that of 'the victimized Other'. The paper explores intersections of gender performativity, mobility and space in the lives of privileged women. An ethnographic inquiry in Cairo and Beirut as well as globally circulating material (such as women's lifestyle magazines and online spaces) provide the basis for my research. By changing the focus from 'migrants' to 'mobile women' and hence to those who are in a position of power, the project explores how the unremarked hegemonic background defined by whiteness operates across borders (Ahmed 2007). Through an exploration of how material and discursive practices are embedded in certain spaces, and mirrored against what is considered the contemporary post-feminist landscape, I develop an analysis of hegemonic genders and sexualities.