To veil the threat of terror”

Afghan women and the ⟨clash of civilizations⟩ in the imagery of the U.S. war on terrorism

Bibliographic Data

ID9239012
AuthorsDana L Cloud (The University of Texas at Austin, corresponding author)
Year2004
Volume90
Issue3
Pages285-306
Publication date2004-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueQuarterly Journal of Speech (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0033-5630 • E-ISSN: 1479-5779
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0033563042000270726
OpenAlexW2010944785
LanguageEN
Citations received90

This article explores the role of widely circulated images of Afghan people in building public support for the 2001–2002 U.S. war with Afghanistan. Emphasizing images of women, I argue that these representations participate in the more general category of “the clash of civilizations,” which constitutes a verbal and a visual ideograph linked to the idea of the “white man's burden.” Through the construction of binary oppositions of self and Other, the evocation of a paternalistic stance toward the women of Afghanistan, and the figuration of modernity as liberation, these images participate in a set of justifications for war that contradicts the actual motives for the war. These contradictions have a number of implications for democratic deliberation and public life during wartime

Aesthetics · Afghan · Art · Deliberation · Democracy · Modernity · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · Terrorism · War on terror · Gender Studies · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Law · Military History and Strategy · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East

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