Questioning Nationalism: The Patriarchal and National Struggles of Cypriot Women within a European Union Context, The European

ABSTRACT This article discusses the link between women’s involvement and identification with the so-called ‘Cyprus problem ’ and nationalism and how it may become problematic within the context of Cyprus’s future accession to the European Union. The author argues for the need to analyse women’s unexplored perspectives and feminist discourses, and that theoretical questions be addressed about Cypriot women’s place within Europe. KEY WORDS Cyprus ethnic group European Union feminism nationalism postcolonialism women The concept of ‘national struggle ’ in Cyprus is mostly associated with the 1955–9 revolt of the Greek Cypriot people against colonial Britain, conducted in order to gain independence through unifying the island with Greece. This idea of the ‘struggle for independence ’ still features prominently in everyday life. Heroes are discussed with admiration at schools, analysed in documentaries shown on television, celebrated on national days. The ideal of freedom and independence has been sought for and the people who fought for it are celebrated. Women take part in this struggle, like women do all over the world; they are the background ‘heroines’, the hidden ‘warriors’, but also the worst victims of war: they are killed, captured and raped; they are abused and threatened; they are left refugees, stigmatized, widows. However, this struggle for independence in Cyprus in the 1950s was created by men, ordered by men and carried out by men. It was a patri-archal struggle on a patriarchal island,1 which most women followed and became involved in. They adjusted to the various roles assigned to them