Natasha Carver
Biographic Data
| ID | 638664 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Natasha Carver |
| GIVEN NAMES | Natasha |
| FAMILY NAME | Carver |
| SIGNATURE | CARVER N |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Bristol |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7518-2502 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 55 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Criminalizing ‘female genital mutilation’
The ‘global prohibition regime’ against ‘female genital mutilation’ (FGM) remains understudied within criminology. Zemiology, with its raison d’être to locate the source and nature of harm, opens up analytical potential. Bringing zemiology together with decolonial feminist approaches for the first time, we analyse data from focus group interviews with people of Somali heritage living in Bristol, England, to consider the unacknowledged harms creat…
Islamic religiosity, Islamophobia and gendered harms
This paper challenges normative assumptions in mainstream Western political and media discourse as well as some academia, which presumes a causative relationship between Islamic religiosity and gendered familial harms. Focusing on the two examples most frequently invoked in such discourse – ‘female genital mutilation’ and ‘forced marriage’ – I argue that prevailing political discourse relies on an orientalist framing in which the West lays claim …
Harms of the current global anti-FGM campaign
Traditional female genital practices, though long-standing in many cultures, have become the focus of an expansive global campaign against ‘female genital mutilation’ (FGM). In this article, we critically examine the harms produced by the anti-FGM discourse and policies, despite their grounding in human rights and health advocacy. We argue that a ubiquitous ‘standard tale’ obscures the diversity of practices, meanings and experiences among those …
Pre-crime, hyper-vigilance and the over-surveillance of migrant-heritage families in ‘FGM-safeguarding’ in England and Wales
This article investigates the role of pre-emptive policies and practices aiming to eliminate female genital cutting/mutilation (FGC/M) in England and Wales. We argue that the Serious Crime Act 2015, with its focus on pre-empting, uncovering and punishing FGC/M, represents a milestone in the development of a pre-crime society. By combining data collected from focus groups with migrant-heritage families living in Bristol in 2018 and data on state p…
A genealogy of silencing
There is an internationally accepted discourse on ‘Female Genital Mutilation’ which understands it as a human rights violation, a major health concern, and an extreme form of gendered violence. Since the 1980s, African women, postcolonial feminists and anthropologists have critiqued this discourse as ethnocentric and racist. We examine the genealogy of the hegemonic anti-FGM discourse, identify alternative perspectives and analyse the extent to w…
The princess, the witch and the fairy godmother
This article analyses the discursive construction of what has become known as 'Female Genital Mutilation' (FGM) in colonial-era debates in the UK Houses of Parliament. The author shows how, in order to bring the topic into the realm of political legitimacy and to be heard in an institution that had only recently allowed women to stand for office, (White) women MPs emphasised their superiority to the African cultures they were talking about. They …
Marry somebody who's here
Gendered and Racialised Epistemological Injustice in FGM-safeguarding
This paper explores FGM-safeguarding in the UK through a decolonial lens. Based on an analysis of the development of law and policy relating to ‘Female Genital Mutilation’ in the UK alongside data collected in focus groups with people of ethnic Somali heritage living in Bristol, we argue that the current legislation and policies, as well as their delivery, are steeped in colonial Othering. We demonstrate that legislative and policy approaches ope…
Tolerated citizenship and FGM-safeguarding
The UN has stated its aim to eliminate ‘Female Genital Mutilation’ by 2030. In adherence to this, many countries have introduced or enhanced legislative and policy measures aimed at prevention through surveillance and punishment. In the European context, while protecting young girls from harm is the notional purpose of such measures, political and media debates have often been framed within nation-building rhetoric: across Europe ‘FGM’ has become…
Marriage, Gender and Refugee Migration
Marriage, Gender and Refugee Migration
This ethical and poetic ethnography analyses the upheavals to gender roles and marital relationships brought about by Somali refugee migration to the UK. Unmoored from the socio-cultural norms that made them men and women, being a refugee is described as making "everything" feel "different, mixed up, upside down." Marriage, Gender and Refugee Migration details how Somali gendered identities are contested, negotiated, and (re)produced within a fra…
The Silent Backdrop
Through the categorization of movers, states determine and fix the belonging of migrants and thereby reproduce the nation-state system as a global reality. Some movers, however, are deemed illegible and must be identified, labelled and thus brought within the system. This paper unpicks the legal consequences of a "coloniality of power" (Quijano, 2000) embedded within the border system as a whole. The paper demonstrates this process through a post…
There is no shelter/home without woman – Haween la’aani waa hoy la’aan (A Somali proverb)
For her protection and benefit
This paper argues that a two-tier system has evolved dividing intra-UK/EU marriages from extra-UK/EU marriages. For the former, marriage is a contract between two individuals overseen by a facilitating state. For the latter, marriage has become more of a legal status defined and controlled by an intrusive and obstructive state. I argue that this divergence in legislating regulation is steeped in an ethnicized imagining of 'Britishness' whereby th…
Displaying genuineness
This article uses Finch’s (2007) idea of ‘display’ to analyse the process in which autobiographical statements for family immigration applications and appeals are drafted in the United Kingdom. I argue that legal representatives play a key role in ‘translating culture’ (Good, 2011) in relation to both content and form, a process that is driven primarily by the need to demonstrate compatibility with the cultural assumptions of ethnocentrically con…
Is Iraq/Kurdistan a State such that it can be Said to Operate State Systems and thereby Offer Protection to its 'Citizens
This paper considers whether Kurdish applicants for refugee status from Iraq can be returned to Iraq/Kurdistan. Access both to Iraq as a whole and to Iraq/Kurdistan in particular is restricted, and so there is little information available. The Iraqi Government in Baghdad does not permit visits by human rights monitors to Iraq/Kurdistan and only the UN and the ICRC (International Committee for the Red Cross) are officially legally present and work…
For her protection and benefit
This paper argues that a two-tier system has evolved dividing intra-UK/EU marriages from extra-UK/EU marriages. For the former, marriage is a contract between two individuals overseen by a facilitating state. For the latter, marriage has become more of a legal status defined and controlled by an intrusive and obstructive state. I argue that this divergence in legislating regulation is steeped in an ethnicized imagining of 'Britishness' whereby th…
Displaying genuineness
This article uses Finch’s (2007) idea of ‘display’ to analyse the process in which autobiographical statements for family immigration applications and appeals are drafted in the United Kingdom. I argue that legal representatives play a key role in ‘translating culture’ (Good, 2011) in relation to both content and form, a process that is driven primarily by the need to demonstrate compatibility with the cultural assumptions of ethnocentrically con…
The Silent Backdrop
Through the categorization of movers, states determine and fix the belonging of migrants and thereby reproduce the nation-state system as a global reality. Some movers, however, are deemed illegible and must be identified, labelled and thus brought within the system. This paper unpicks the legal consequences of a "coloniality of power" (Quijano, 2000) embedded within the border system as a whole. The paper demonstrates this process through a post…
Gendered and Racialised Epistemological Injustice in FGM-safeguarding
This paper explores FGM-safeguarding in the UK through a decolonial lens. Based on an analysis of the development of law and policy relating to ‘Female Genital Mutilation’ in the UK alongside data collected in focus groups with people of ethnic Somali heritage living in Bristol, we argue that the current legislation and policies, as well as their delivery, are steeped in colonial Othering. We demonstrate that legislative and policy approaches ope…
Tolerated citizenship and FGM-safeguarding
The UN has stated its aim to eliminate ‘Female Genital Mutilation’ by 2030. In adherence to this, many countries have introduced or enhanced legislative and policy measures aimed at prevention through surveillance and punishment. In the European context, while protecting young girls from harm is the notional purpose of such measures, political and media debates have often been framed within nation-building rhetoric: across Europe ‘FGM’ has become…
Pre-crime, hyper-vigilance and the over-surveillance of migrant-heritage families in ‘FGM-safeguarding’ in England and Wales
This article investigates the role of pre-emptive policies and practices aiming to eliminate female genital cutting/mutilation (FGC/M) in England and Wales. We argue that the Serious Crime Act 2015, with its focus on pre-empting, uncovering and punishing FGC/M, represents a milestone in the development of a pre-crime society. By combining data collected from focus groups with migrant-heritage families living in Bristol in 2018 and data on state p…
A genealogy of silencing
There is an internationally accepted discourse on ‘Female Genital Mutilation’ which understands it as a human rights violation, a major health concern, and an extreme form of gendered violence. Since the 1980s, African women, postcolonial feminists and anthropologists have critiqued this discourse as ethnocentric and racist. We examine the genealogy of the hegemonic anti-FGM discourse, identify alternative perspectives and analyse the extent to w…
Islamic religiosity, Islamophobia and gendered harms
This paper challenges normative assumptions in mainstream Western political and media discourse as well as some academia, which presumes a causative relationship between Islamic religiosity and gendered familial harms. Focusing on the two examples most frequently invoked in such discourse – ‘female genital mutilation’ and ‘forced marriage’ – I argue that prevailing political discourse relies on an orientalist framing in which the West lays claim …
The princess, the witch and the fairy godmother
This article analyses the discursive construction of what has become known as 'Female Genital Mutilation' (FGM) in colonial-era debates in the UK Houses of Parliament. The author shows how, in order to bring the topic into the realm of political legitimacy and to be heard in an institution that had only recently allowed women to stand for office, (White) women MPs emphasised their superiority to the African cultures they were talking about. They …
There is no shelter/home without woman – Haween la’aani waa hoy la’aan (A Somali proverb)
Is Iraq/Kurdistan a State such that it can be Said to Operate State Systems and thereby Offer Protection to its 'Citizens
This paper considers whether Kurdish applicants for refugee status from Iraq can be returned to Iraq/Kurdistan. Access both to Iraq as a whole and to Iraq/Kurdistan in particular is restricted, and so there is little information available. The Iraqi Government in Baghdad does not permit visits by human rights monitors to Iraq/Kurdistan and only the UN and the ICRC (International Committee for the Red Cross) are officially legally present and work…
Displaying genuineness
This article uses Finch’s (2007) idea of ‘display’ to analyse the process in which autobiographical statements for family immigration applications and appeals are drafted in the United Kingdom. I argue that legal representatives play a key role in ‘translating culture’ (Good, 2011) in relation to both content and form, a process that is driven primarily by the need to demonstrate compatibility with the cultural assumptions of ethnocentrically con…
For her protection and benefit
This paper argues that a two-tier system has evolved dividing intra-UK/EU marriages from extra-UK/EU marriages. For the former, marriage is a contract between two individuals overseen by a facilitating state. For the latter, marriage has become more of a legal status defined and controlled by an intrusive and obstructive state. I argue that this divergence in legislating regulation is steeped in an ethnicized imagining of 'Britishness' whereby th…
There is no shelter/home without woman – Haween la’aani waa hoy la’aan (A Somali proverb)
The Silent Backdrop
Through the categorization of movers, states determine and fix the belonging of migrants and thereby reproduce the nation-state system as a global reality. Some movers, however, are deemed illegible and must be identified, labelled and thus brought within the system. This paper unpicks the legal consequences of a "coloniality of power" (Quijano, 2000) embedded within the border system as a whole. The paper demonstrates this process through a post…
Marriage, Gender and Refugee Migration
Marriage, Gender and Refugee Migration
This ethical and poetic ethnography analyses the upheavals to gender roles and marital relationships brought about by Somali refugee migration to the UK. Unmoored from the socio-cultural norms that made them men and women, being a refugee is described as making "everything" feel "different, mixed up, upside down." Marriage, Gender and Refugee Migration details how Somali gendered identities are contested, negotiated, and (re)produced within a fra…
Tolerated citizenship and FGM-safeguarding
The UN has stated its aim to eliminate ‘Female Genital Mutilation’ by 2030. In adherence to this, many countries have introduced or enhanced legislative and policy measures aimed at prevention through surveillance and punishment. In the European context, while protecting young girls from harm is the notional purpose of such measures, political and media debates have often been framed within nation-building rhetoric: across Europe ‘FGM’ has become…
Gendered and Racialised Epistemological Injustice in FGM-safeguarding
This paper explores FGM-safeguarding in the UK through a decolonial lens. Based on an analysis of the development of law and policy relating to ‘Female Genital Mutilation’ in the UK alongside data collected in focus groups with people of ethnic Somali heritage living in Bristol, we argue that the current legislation and policies, as well as their delivery, are steeped in colonial Othering. We demonstrate that legislative and policy approaches ope…
A genealogy of silencing
There is an internationally accepted discourse on ‘Female Genital Mutilation’ which understands it as a human rights violation, a major health concern, and an extreme form of gendered violence. Since the 1980s, African women, postcolonial feminists and anthropologists have critiqued this discourse as ethnocentric and racist. We examine the genealogy of the hegemonic anti-FGM discourse, identify alternative perspectives and analyse the extent to w…
The princess, the witch and the fairy godmother
This article analyses the discursive construction of what has become known as 'Female Genital Mutilation' (FGM) in colonial-era debates in the UK Houses of Parliament. The author shows how, in order to bring the topic into the realm of political legitimacy and to be heard in an institution that had only recently allowed women to stand for office, (White) women MPs emphasised their superiority to the African cultures they were talking about. They …
Marry somebody who's here
Harms of the current global anti-FGM campaign
Traditional female genital practices, though long-standing in many cultures, have become the focus of an expansive global campaign against ‘female genital mutilation’ (FGM). In this article, we critically examine the harms produced by the anti-FGM discourse and policies, despite their grounding in human rights and health advocacy. We argue that a ubiquitous ‘standard tale’ obscures the diversity of practices, meanings and experiences among those …
Pre-crime, hyper-vigilance and the over-surveillance of migrant-heritage families in ‘FGM-safeguarding’ in England and Wales
This article investigates the role of pre-emptive policies and practices aiming to eliminate female genital cutting/mutilation (FGC/M) in England and Wales. We argue that the Serious Crime Act 2015, with its focus on pre-empting, uncovering and punishing FGC/M, represents a milestone in the development of a pre-crime society. By combining data collected from focus groups with migrant-heritage families living in Bristol in 2018 and data on state p…
Criminalizing ‘female genital mutilation’
The ‘global prohibition regime’ against ‘female genital mutilation’ (FGM) remains understudied within criminology. Zemiology, with its raison d’être to locate the source and nature of harm, opens up analytical potential. Bringing zemiology together with decolonial feminist approaches for the first time, we analyse data from focus group interviews with people of Somali heritage living in Bristol, England, to consider the unacknowledged harms creat…
Islamic religiosity, Islamophobia and gendered harms
This paper challenges normative assumptions in mainstream Western political and media discourse as well as some academia, which presumes a causative relationship between Islamic religiosity and gendered familial harms. Focusing on the two examples most frequently invoked in such discourse – ‘female genital mutilation’ and ‘forced marriage’ – I argue that prevailing political discourse relies on an orientalist framing in which the West lays claim …
Political science (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Law (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting Issues (7 works) · Gender Studies (6 works) · Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (4 works) · Gender Studies (4 works) · Migration, Refugees, and Integration (4 works)