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(Un)Thinkable Political Subjects in Syria: Sex workers Strike in Adraa Prison
Abstract
Following the 2011 revolutions and social movements in the SWANA region, much of the scholarly attention has focused on visible and public forms of protests that paved the way to essentialize al-shari' (the street) as the main and 'authentic' site of protest. Whether by mainstream media, or the academic and think tank research, this conceptualization shapes what constitutes as 'dissident' and 'revolutionary' and what constitutes a "not-the-right-time protest.' This approach to learning from the past decade's popular protests of what has been framed as the 'Arab Spring,' ignores everyday protests that may be invisible, or those that are perceived as 'not revolutionary enough' or even framed as 'outsider' protests. Based on autoethnographic and ethnographic methods, my intervention will focus on two forms of what I call everyday 'over' protests as forms of 'outsider protests': 1- sex workers' protests in prison and 2- street drag protests. Based on an autoethnographic account of my second detention in early 2012, I conceptualized the sex workers' protest in Adra prison in Damascus in early 2012 as an 'outsider protest.' I also conceptualize the figuration of 'over queer' as an outsider queer not only from the state and community but also within al-jaw, an underground cisman-dominant community in Syria. I borrowed the term 'over queer' from many of my interlocutors, describing the 'over queer' as who is incarcerated for walking in the streets for wearing an 'over makeup,' with an 'over outfit,' and who is either imagined as a trans woman, a crossdresser, a drag, or a femme luti (‘fag’). In doing so, this paper engages closely with debates on the racialization of 'affective economies' to develop notions of queer protest every day and what are the limitations of such theoretical framework to understand non-binary and 'outsider' forms of everyday protests in contemporary North Africa and Southwest Asia region.
Discipline
Sociology
Geographic Area
Arab States
Syria
Sub Area
None