What Kind of Liberation?
Women and the Occupation of Iraq
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- $23.99
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- $23.99
Publisher Description
In the run-up to war in Iraq, the Bush administration assured the world that America's interest was in liberation—especially for women. The first book to examine how Iraqi women have fared since the invasion, What Kind of Liberation? reports from the heart of the war zone with dire news of scarce resources, growing unemployment, violence, and seclusion. Moreover, the book exposes the gap between rhetoric that placed women center stage and the present reality of their diminishing roles in the "new Iraq." Based on interviews with Iraqi women's rights activists, international policy makers, and NGO workers and illustrated with photographs taken by Iraqi women, What Kind of Liberation? speaks through an astonishing array of voices. Nadje Al-Ali and Nicola Pratt correct the widespread view that the country's violence, sectarianism, and systematic erosion of women's rights come from something inherent in Muslim, Middle Eastern, or Iraqi culture. They also demonstrate how in spite of competing political agendas, Iraqi women activists are resolutely pressing to be part of the political transition, reconstruction, and shaping of the new Iraq.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Al-Ali and Pratt\x92s examination of women in postinvasion Iraq argues that the invasion has undermined women\x92s rights, as the nationalist movement supersedes the women\x92s movement, as heightened security risk forces many women into their homes. Aside from physical danger, gender studies scholar Al-Ali and foreign relations expert Pratt deftly illustrate cultural resistance to women\x92s freedom: for instance, Iraqi women are viewed as \x93custodians and transmitters of national culture\x94 rather than as actors on the political stage, and as rhetorical pawns, with military invasion justified as a means of protecting them. The authors make overgeneralized statements\x97e.g., \x93militarism at home contributes to reproducing social inequalities in countries that are a target of military intervention\x94\x97rooted in assumptions not all readers will share (\x93military intervention is a tool of U.S. empire building\x94). The authors also sometimes assume knowledge of treaties, events and organizations many readers won\x92t be familiar with, such as the Algiers Agreement of 1975. Still, the book thoroughly exposes the disparities between the talk of politicos and the situation of Iraqi women\x97a timely addition to scholarship on Iraq.
