From Trafficking to Terror: Connecting Two Global Wars
The “war on terror” and the “war on trafficking”, two seemingly separate initiatives, have become interwoven in recent years and conspire to castigate Muslim majority countries as sites of depravity, difference and danger, fueling Islamophobic rhetoric about the “clash of civilizations” (Huntington 1993). Both discourses are raced, classed and gendered, producing distinct tropes of victims and villains, while the intersection of these two “wars” presents a confluence of moral panics, or public anxieties pertaining to 芒鈧渋mmoral’ behavior, about sexuality, Islam and immigration (Cohen 1972). More disconcertingly, these discourses are resulting in a series of policies and sometimes militarized responses that are hurting vulnerable populations globally, but particularly in the Middle East. Each “war” seeks to marshal rhetoric about the other to further bolster its cause and justify the creation of harsh policies suffused with overt condescension.聽This presentation will critique the discourses on trafficking and terror, particularly focusing on their negative aftereffects in terms of policies pertaining to the Middle East.
Pardis Mahdavi, ( Associate Professor of Anthropology, Pomona College)focuses her work on gender and sexuality in the Muslim world, including sexual politics, labor migration and human trafficking.聽听辞蹿听Passionate Uprisings: The Intersection of Sexuality and Politics in Post-Revolutionary Iran听(2008),听Gridlock: Labor, Migration and Human Trafficking in Dubai聽(2011),听From Trafficking to Terror聽(2013) and is currently researching impacts of gendered migrations on family and love across Asia.
This program is co- sponsored by the 51猎奇入口 Humanities Institute and the Office of Public Events and Community Programs.聽