Namus: woman as “translation”

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the implications of namus for the construction/reproduction of female subjectivity in Turkey and reflect on the interconnections among language, law, gender and translation for examining the similarity between the binary thinking on woman vs. man and that on translation vs. original. Arguing that namus re-produces an image of woman as translation (of man as the original), the study defends that faithfulness socially demanded only from translation/woman is deeply gendered and this demand is secured by the power of original/man.