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Liberation through Occupation: Interrogating the Selective Plots of Feminist Solidarity
Abstract
Many Iranian women's rights activists in the diaspora who were mobilized in solidarity with the tragic death of Mahsa Amini in Iran are either standing with the Israeli's brutal genocide and the killing of masses of women in Gaza or staying utterly silenced. In this paper, I interrogate the convergence of feminism, militarism, and imperialism by arguing that a feminist imperialist discourse has increasingly taken to the global stage, supporting imperialist war, occupation, and intervention in the name of freedom and democracy. The selective solidarity of many Iranian women's rights activists and their public standing with the Israeli genocide urges an interrogation of the relationship between women and the empire. The woman's question has been part and parcel of the discourse of imperialism and Orientalism since colonial modernity. Yet, the current politics of solidarity have become militarized with the blurring of the boundaries between imperialism and feminism.
Discipline
Anthropology
Geographic Area
Iran
Sub Area
None