Pakistani military’s rhetorical construction of an Indigenous civil rights movement

Bibliographic Data

ID12904754
AuthorsFaizullah Jan (0000-0001-6700-1647, University of Peshawar, corresponding author), Azmat Khan (0000-0001-7743-4104, Ohio University)
Year2023
Volume17
Issue2
Pages179-195
Publication date2023-07-10
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMedia War & Conflict (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1750-6352 • E-ISSN: 1750-6360
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/17506352231186293
OpenAlexW4383912386
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited14

For the last four decades, Pakistan’s northwestern Pashtun tribal areas have been in a constant state of imperialist wars. In reaction to this organized violence, a local civil rights movement, the PTM, emerged in 2014 which powerfully challenged the military’s discursive regime that legitimates these US-led wars. However, the military challenged the movement’s call for justice by launching a concerted discursive drive to construct an enemy image of the PTM. This study aims to discover how the military constructs the identity, as well as the cultural and political meanings of the movement. The authors found that the military strategically organizes its discourse to first build a symbolic order in which an enemy other, less than human, is created, and then its oppression is normalized and made invisible. They hope that the article contributes to the current critical scholarship on the increasing militarization of contemporary public spaces and democratic cultures, particularly in the context of South Asia

Adversary · Aesthetics · Context (archaeology · Democracy · Human rights · Identity (music · Militarization · Oppression · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Rhetorical question · Scholarship · Sociology · State (computer science · Gender Studies · History · Indian History and Philosophy · Law · Peace and Human Rights Education · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East

Tools

Open DOI