Mobilizing Culture as an Asset: A Transdisciplinary Effort to Rethink Gender Violence

The contested relationship between gender violence and the "culture concept" can be found in the cultural defense of gender violence, gender violence linked to postcolonial retraditionalizations of family life, the underpolicing of gender violence associated with communities labeled as culturally backward, and the overpolicing of activities categorized by human rights advocates as harmful traditional practices. Culture has been used to defend, explain, or excuse gender violence, and seen as a barrier to the elimination of gender violence. Here, however, the authors analyze how culture has been mobilized strategically as a resource in the struggle against gender violence.