Negotiating sexual agency in marriage: The experience of migrant and refugee women

Health Care for Women International
Volume 40, Issue 7-9, 2019, Pages 870-897

Negotiating sexual agency in marriage: The experience of migrant and refugee women (Article)

Hawkey A.J.* , Ussher J.M. , Perz J.

^a Translational Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Campbelltown, NSW, Australia
^b Translational Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Campbelltown, NSW, Australia
^c [Affiliation not available]

Abstract

In this study, adult migrant and refugee women’s negotiation of sexual agency in the context of marriage is explored. In Sydney, Australia and Vancouver, Canada, 78 semistructured individual interviews, and 15 focus groups, comprised of 82 participants, were conducted with women who had recently migrated from Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Sri Lanka, and South America. Women’s negotiation of sexual agency was evident with respect to husband choice, disclosure of sexual desire, pleasure, pain, and sexual consent. While some participants took up subjugated sexual subject positions reflecting dominant cultural or religious discourses, many women also resisted these discourses to enact sexual agency. © 2019, © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

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Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85064484141&doi=10.1080%2f07399332.2019.1566334&partnerID=40&md5=e993ba6ee542dc1a76aaef1cf1c5f873

DOI: 10.1080/07399332.2019.1566334

ISSN: 07399332

Original Language: English