The Gendered Polit­ics of Be­long­ing

De­vel­op­ment sum­mary

Cas­sadee Orinthia Yan’s The Gendered Polit­ics of Be­long­ing ex­am­ines how na­tion­al­ity laws across the world trans­late pat­ri­arch­al power into hier­arch­ies of cit­izen­ship. Draw­ing on South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, Africa, the Amer­icas and Europe, it shows how rules on des­cent, mar­riage, re­li­gion and race shape who may trans­mit na­tion­al­ity, who may be ex­cluded, and whose be­long­ing re­mains con­di­tion­al. The book argues that these re­gimes do not merely re­flect “tra­di­tion” or “cul­ture”; they pro­duce second-class cit­izen­ship and, in many set­tings, people who are form­ally or func­tion­ally state­less.