Susanne Dahlgren – författare

Situated in the southernmost tip of the Arabian Peninsula, Aden is considered the economic capital of the Republic of Yemen. Once a British colony, the port city later served as the capital of the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, the only Marxist regime in the Middle East. Tracing the social and political history of Aden, Dahlgren explores the evolving ways in which gender and family relations are established. The author offers a complex picture of Adeni society in which norms for morality and propriety vary according to the context of the social space. Documenting a nuanced social flexibility, Dahlgren stresses women’s agency and power to maneuver within a traditional patriarchal Muslim community.

At a time when Yemen has been ravaged by a decade of war and subject to myriad political and military interventions, the essays in this collection serve as a timely reminder of the need for grounded anthropological study in even the harshest of circumstances. From tribesmen to refugees, revolutionaries to farmers, state workers to charity workers, intellectuals to the unemployed and the destitute, we learn of the everyday political languages through which people in the country live their lives. This volume is a call for an anthropology attuned not only to locally significant political concepts, but also to the ways in which people actively confront and reorient them while challenging their worlds and engaging the political imagination in a spirit of abiding critique. This concise collection is the fruit of decades of ethnographic fieldwork in Yemen and will be of interest to students and scholars seeking an intimate and nuanced account of life in the country.

At a time when Yemen has been ravaged by a decade of war and subject to myriad political and military interventions, the essays in this collection serve as a timely reminder of the need for grounded anthropological study in even the harshest of circumstances. From tribesmen to refugees, revolutionaries to farmers, state workers to charity workers, intellectuals to the unemployed and the destitute, we learn of the everyday political languages through which people in the country live their lives. This volume is a call for an anthropology attuned not only to locally significant political concepts, but also to the ways in which people actively confront and reorient them while challenging their worlds and engaging the political imagination in a spirit of abiding critique. This concise collection is the fruit of decades of ethnographic fieldwork in Yemen and will be of interest to students and scholars seeking an intimate and nuanced account of life in the country.

As a resident of Aden for more than three years spanning the late years of Marxist South Yemen, Dahlgren presents the reader with an intimate portrait of Yemeni men and women in the home, in the factory, in the office, and in the street, demonstrating that Islamic societies must be understood through a multiplicity of social spheres and morality orders. Within each space, she examines the range of legal, political, religious, and social regulations that frame gender relations and social dynamics. Highlighting the diversity of women’s and men’s positions as a continuum rather than as distinct areas, Dahlgren presents a vivid picture of this dynamic society, providing an in-depth background to today’s political upheavals in Yemen.

Millaiseen arkeen nuoret aikuiset ovat tottuneet islamilaisissa maissa? Kaivattua tietoa maista, joista lähdetään siirtolaisuuteen Eurooppaan.Kirja vie kuuteen muslimimaahan, joissa suomalaiset antropologit ovat viettäneet pitkiä aikoja nuorten aikuisten parissa. Nuoret bilettävät, seurustelevat, harrastavat seksiä, osoittavat mieltään ja kokevat seksuaalista häirintää. Kirja porautuu tavallisten ihmisten elämään ja kuvaa haaveita ja vaikeuksia maissa, joissa islaminuskonto on vallitseva. Uskonto vaikuttaa vahvasti mutta ei kuitenkaan määrittele heidän koko elämäänsä.

Asiantunteva tietokirja valottaa Lähi-idän konfliktien taustaa. Kuohuva Lähi-itä sijaitsee aivan Euroopan naapurissa, ja sen tapahtumat vaikuttavat myös Suomeen. Silti tiedämme esimerkiksi Palestiinan kysymyksestä vähemmän kuin uskomme.Valaiseva teos auttaa ymmärtämään Lähi-idän moniulotteista mosaiikkia. Se näyttää alueen tapahtumat osana uudenlaista maailmanjärjestystä. Tärkeä rooli on Saudi-Arabian, Israelin ja Iranin kaltaisilla vahvoilla toimijoilla, jotka ajavat omia etujaan, rakentavat uusia liittolaisuuksia ja muovaavat maailmaa vastaamaan omia näkemyksiään. Susanne Dahlgren ja Mikko Lohikoski ovat Lähi-idän asiantuntijoita, jotka ovat seuranneet alueen kehitystä vuosikymmeniä.