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| Fatima with her DEP colleagues |
In January 2016, I had the opportunity
to engage in the ‘Observatory of Symbolic
Violence’, an action research project in Colombia conducted by students and
members of staff from Oxford Brookes University and CERAR. The research began
in 2014 and this follow up participatory mode of research focused on the impact
of stigmatization on different communities.
The places visited in Colombia
are physically and culturally as well as literally and figuratively distant
from Quetta (Pakistan) where I was born and raised. The long history of conflict and guerilla insurgency
carries with it the negative perceptions of Colombia. Although armed groups
still operate in limited capacity in some of the rural areas, the country is
astonishingly safe, not to mention the scenic landscape and friendly people.
The experience of the
trip taught me that the war affected people are mostly affected by a type of
violence which goes beyond the realm of the physical. They face the most
powerful forms of symbolic violence such as discrimination and stigmatization.
What struck me the most was the forms
of stigmatisation of people and places found within different levels? I found
it difficult to comprehend that displaced people from areas like Trujillo and
Florida have limited access to jobs and housing opportunities because of their place of origin. They are often stigmatized as guerilla sympathizers or fear
that they will bring the conflict with them to the urban areas. This, in many
cases, results in another phenomenon, that of people preferring to continue
their life in a high risk zone rather than move to a place which inflicts on
them more pain and even poverty.
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| Group discussion with coffee producers |
The negative stigma on cafeteros and campesenos
who are seen as peasants has impacted adversely on the youth who are migrating
to the urban area in search of employment. This puts at risk the distinctive
way of life based on generations’ worth of legacies, threatening their sense of
identity and culture. To counter this challenging issue, I was fascinated to
learn that FECOOP (Foundation for Cooperative Education) has began rolling out innovative
educational projects, based on reconnecting the youth with traditional jobs and
trades. On the contrary, the worst form of symbolic violence I felt was that of self-stigmatisation. One of the
victims described it as, ‘when they talk about the past, they
cry and stigmatise themselves by reliving the past instead of moving on’.
In spite of the
stigmatisation and normalisation of violence, individuals and communities
showed immense resilience in their coping strategies and adaptation to the new
way of life.
Fatima Hashmi (DEP 2015/16)
