The Politics of Pain and the Uses of Torture

Citation:

Philipose, Liz. 2007. “The Politics of Pain and the Uses of Torture.” Signs 32 (4): 1047-71.

Author: Liz Philipose

Annotation:

Summary:
"Since September 11, 2001, the equation of Muslim with terrorist has lodged in the popular imagination in the United States. This conflation undermines the ability to distinguish between a few individuals who have committed or intend to commit acts of extrastate violence (terrorism) and the rest of the Muslim population, a population that consists of more than 1 billion people worldwide. Although public discussions of the so-called Muslim terrorist are often accompanied by disclaimers acknowledging that not all Muslims are a problem or that the political abuse of Islam, rather than Islam itself, is a problem, these caveats fail to dislodge the increasingly intractable conflation of Muslim with terrorist. This article examines how the racialized terrorist is produced through various war- on-terror tactics, including the indefinite detainment and torture of prisoners in U.S. military detention centers and the circulation of torture photographs" (Philipose 2007, 1047).

Topics: Gender, Masculinity/ies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Race, Religion, Sexual Violence, SV against Men, Terrorism Regions: Africa, MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Iraq

Year: 2007

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