Zain Dababneh--Feminism and War

In the reading about feminism and US wars, the authors do important work regarding the intent behind war, specifically discussing the Afghanistan War in the first couple pages. The authors discuss how people who continue to pursue war use race, class, gender, sexuality, class, to legitimize and garner support for these wars. The use of gendered and sexual violence is a common thing that happens when the United States goes to war with another country. It is also very important to note that the authors use the women of color, intersectional, feminist critique of war.

An interesting point brought up by the author that I really want to discuss is the idea of saving brown women from brown men, and how capitalism has a major role with war. They say, “While the US imperial project calls for ‘civilizing’ men of color and oppressed nationalities--black, brown, Arab, Central and South Asian--and for ‘rescuing’ women of color outside of US borders, the same state engages in targeting, criminalizing, imprisoning, and killing these very peoples within its own borders in the context of the ‘endless wars’ required to sustain capitalist expansion” (4). Many people tend to not realize that war is also an industry. People profit when it comes to war. Weapons are a major industry in the United States. As long as there is capitalism, war will always exist. When the only goal of capitalism is to make profit, of course certain people want to go to war; it is so they can pocket more money while other people are being tortured and killed by their products. War is not about and is never about saving anyone from anything, it is about profit and power.

While reading about the gendered aspects of war and the use of sexual violence, it eerily reminded of two things: Rasmea Odeh and her body being abused and violated by the state of Israel, and the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq that used sexual violence against Arab men to dehumanize, torture, and to make them confess to crimes that they did not commit. Imperial feminism does not care for or even acknowledge how women and men of color are the true victims of war. They continue to advocate for equal opportunity for women and the LGBTQ+ community to serve in the army while ignoring how war negatively impacts women, men, and LGBTQ+ community in other countries.

An example of the gendered aspects of war in modern times was the recent deportation of Rasmea Odeh. Odeh was a political prisoner in Israel for ten years, was forced to confess to crimes she did not commit due to torture, and was released in a prisoner exchange with Israel. When applying for paperwork to become a citizen, she said she had no criminal record. In her interrogation, she was forced to confess to crimes she did not commit due to her being tortured and sexually assaulted by Israeli army. The Israeli Army also undressed her father in front of her and threatened to force him upon her if she did not confess to her “crimes.” Odeh rescinded her forced confession shortly after making it. In 2014, US Homeland Security used that as means to charge Odeh with immigration fraud and brought back her false conviction to strip her of her citizenship and deport her. Many spoke out against her deportation, but Odeh was sent back to Jordan in September 2017, with many protesters at the airport meeting her there to send her off well. The gendered and sexualized violence she experienced to keep her silent did not work, but she still faces the repercussions of the violence she experienced.

My question for the class is how do we critique imperial feminism without causing more factions and more division? How do we critique war without being called “unpatriotic”?

pictured: Rasmea Odeh