This photobook produced by the Understanding Transactional Sex in Situations of Humanitarian Crises (ListenH in short) research project.shows the multiple meanings of transactional sex for militancy-affected people on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
The book, 'Giving Voice to Silence', is an insight- and powerful statement about the multiple meanings of transactional sex for militancy-affected people on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Understood as the engagement in sex in exchange for cash, goods, services, protection or privileges, transactional sex is a widespread, but stigmatized and therefore often invisibilized way to secure one’s livelihood in humanitarian contexts. The legal criminalization and religious as well as cultural stigmatization of non-conforming sexual practices in Pakistan aggravates this and therefore involves high risks for the people involved.
Through participatory photovoice, the book seeks to visibilize the meanings of transactional sex in Pakistan’s humanitarian settings.
Visualizing experiences and meanings of transactional sex
Nine photo stories based on research with Afghan refugees and militancy-affected Pakistanis reflect how transactional sex is embedded in contexts of militancy, restrictive migration governance, poverty and patriarchal power.
The images visualize diverse experiences with and meanings of transactional sex of adult cis-gender women and men, transgender women and young girls and boys. The same photo story might include a rose symbolizing sexual exchange and an empty plate depicting the harsh realities of poverty that motivate the engagement in transactional sex.
Even similar motives carry different meanings. A lock, for instance, may reflect imprisonment for one photographer and care for privacy for the other.
The photo stories are contextualized through chapters that introduce the conflict-ridden borderlands of Pakistan and Afghanistan, the resulting waves of forced displacement, histories of commercial sexual relations in South Asia, the underlying research project and its dilemmas as well as the method of participatory photovoice.
The book concludes with a series of team members’ reflections on their research on transactional sex.
Research into transactional sex
The photobook is a result of the ListenH research on 'Understanding transactional sex in situations of humanitarian crises'.
It was first launched in the Islamabad Art Gallery. The editors, ListenH Pakistan coordinators Saba Gul Khattak and Noreen Naseer, designer Adeela Suleman and various contributors to the book, including ISS Associate Professor and ListenH coordinator Dr Karin Astrid Siegmann contributed to the panel introducing the book.
Siegmann pointed out that it is commonly more powerful actors, such as humanitarian organizations, who dominate discourses related to transactional sex in humanitarian settings and define – often repressive - interventions based thereon. This motivated the ListenH project’s participatory approach: People engaged in transactional sex were invited to become part of the research teams in Pakistan, Colombia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in an effort to let people speak on their own behalf.
A sprout of defiance
Looking back at the launch, one of the Pakistani team members concluded: 'The next step we want to see is that the book contributes to tangible change.'
Another team member, an Afghan refugee, had contributed an image of hope: 'Towards the sky it rises, a sprout of defiance and courage, amidst the dry autumn leaves.' Asked about her hope going forward, she responded: 'My hope is to reach a place where I can live safely and continue my education.'
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- Related links
- Gender, Sexuality and Social Justice Academic Team