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Women’s narratives on (in)security in Abkhazia : Theorizing abortion rights as a security issue

This thesis is set out to examine how women in Abkhazia understand their own (in)security and to explore how the participating women understand the prohibition of abortions that is implemented in the breakaway region. Furthermore, the study seeks to, based on the empirical findings, theorize abortion rights as a security issue. The thesis is guided by Feminist Security Theory and previous feminist literature. The data is generated through ten semi-structured interviews with women. Through a thematic analysis the findings from the interviews are categorized into two main themes that are responding to the two first research questions; How do women in Abkhazia understand their (in)security?; How do women understand the prohibition of abortions? The thematic analysis finds that women in Abkhazia understand their (in)security as dependent on four aspects; conflict context; economic insecurity; political representation and participation; structural inequality and gender-based violence. Moreover, it finds that women’s understanding of the abortion prohibition also includes four aspects; economic insecurity; women’s rights; political representation and participation; the nation’s interests. The findings are understood as mirroring and thus this thesis argues that abortion prohibition exacerbates women’s insecurity. Lastly, it suggests that abortion rights should theoretically be understood as a security issue. The study at hand empirically contributes to the existing literature on women’s (in)security narratives and furthermore adds a theoretical contribution on abortion rights as a security issue.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:fhs-9449
Date January 2020
CreatorsSkogh, Maja
PublisherFörsvarshögskolan
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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