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US theIntervention Text OFof EMPIRE; ofEmpire, Colonial The in Transnational Iran OR Haunting: WHEN and its Impact Articulation Ghosts WOUNDS on in Arab the TRAVEL!" ofPost-Revolutionary Afro-Palestinian American Poetry" Solidarity" Reform Movement" 'U$GDP:DWHUPDQ Sirene Harb Khayyat Dr. Mr.Yasmine Omar Denijal Jegic Ms. ZahraDewachi Abbassi $PHULFDQ8QLYHUVLW\RI%HLUXW/HEDQRQ Johannes American Rutgers University, Gutenberg-Universität University United Beirut, States Mainz, Lebanon American Univerity of of Beirut, Lebanon George Mason University, United StatesGermany DZ#DXEHGXOE [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] '(6&5,37,21 7KLVSDSHUZLOORIIHUDJHRORJLFDOUHDGLQJRIVHWWOHUFRORQLDOLVPWKURXJKDFRQVLGHUDWLRQRIH[WUDFWLYH Changes inthe the modality US led under the so-called “war on terror” and the response to it, of Inspired by Avery Gordon’s analysis ofespecially “ghostly matters”, this paper reads the personal and political Following war on Gaza and the wars, evolvement of1990s police violence against African-Americans in 2014, group The reform that in Iran in the under President Mohammad Khatami has beenalargely This paper ismovement structured asofaemerged conversation between two sisters and across two disciplines (anthropology FDSLWDOLVPLWVLPSOLFDWLRQZLWKUDFLDOL]HGPRGHVRIODERUGLVFLSOLQHDQGQRUPDWLYHSURWRFROVRI havecomparative had dire on societies and in theimperial Middle East. Meanwhile, political and media dimensions Palestinians of haunting bothdue Palestine intoon Arab and American the diaspora poetry signed and athe "Statement sociological/psychological Solidarity with the implications People ofexisting Ferguson," of dismissed asfrom arepercussions failure internal ideological inconsistencies as wellofas external pressure from the and literature) the topic of thecommunities interlacing of the and the domestic spheres by way NQRZOHGJHSURGXFWLRQ7UDFLQJDKLVWRU\RIWKH86EDVHG3KHOSV'RGJH&RUSRUDWLRQIURPLWV depictions of regional conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon have fallen into simplistic characterizations of stating "your struggles through the ages have been an inspiration to us as we fight our own battles for human its power portrayal structure, in relation also born to(Brownies of imperial ideological violence, differences. fragments What and is missing unfinished in this losses. analysis To is a study end, itof explores thebasic role that of their mother’s memoir and Kalashnikovs: A Saudi Woman’s Memoir of this American Arabia EHJLQQLQJVDVDFRWWRQWUDGLQJFRQVRUWLXPWRLWVHQJDJHPHQWZLWKH[WUDFWLYHHQWHUSULVHVLQWLPEHU violence as defined by religious, ethnic and civilizational identities. The increased militarization, destruction dignities." This transnational expression of solidarity was one of increasingly many articulations against fears United States intervention has played in athrough hostile climate forin reform, explaining why movement ghosts and the sense2009) of the manifested eruptions ofthe shadows and60s apparitions of the and Wartime Beirut, ofghostly, growing upcreating in Saudi Arabia’s Aramco 1950s and andthe bringing up OHDGDQGFRSSHUWRLWVUROHDVDSLRQHHULQWKH6RXWKHUQ&DOLIRUQLDDQG3HUVLDQ*XOIRLOLQGXVWULHVLW and dismantling of state institutions under sanctions and occupation, the massive population displacement, produced by (post-)colonial violence in the context of US imperialism. Palestinians have filled negatively emerged in the manner that it did, and why it engendered such negative reactions. Through an examination dead, in in The Lives of Raininby Handal, 19 Varieties of Gazelle by Naomi Shihab Nye,lodged and of aZLOOSORWDWRSRORJ\RILPSHULDOLQWHUYHQWLRQWKURXJKFRQVLGHUDWLRQRIWKHJHRORJLFDOUHVLGXHVERUQRI family war-torn Beirut theNathalie 1970s and 80s. How does one relate to shards of empire that have rise of spaces humanitarian regimes all led towithin aformerly renegotiation ofthe borders and boundaries new/old forms of racialized which are comparable toboth those and occupied byofAfrican-Americans. the intellectual trends that have emerged and in opposition to the reform movement, this article Geographies Light by Lisa Suhair Majaj. These hauntings, paper shows, represent coded themselves in of the deepest grain ofhave domestic love? Inhabiting acontemporarily war situation where America was construed H[WUDFWLYHWHFKQRORJLHV7KHIUDJPHQWVRIHPSLUHLQWKLVVSHFLILFVHQVHDUHJHRSK\VLFDOVXEVWDQFHV sociality and have given rise to new therapeutic geographies—where patients with injuries and afflictions This paper the emergence of a of transnational concept as of an subalternity atoresult of mutual seeks toGreat highlight thesince significant legacy foreign The opposition the reform movement will be as critiques “the ofdiscusses empire Satan” with an they Arab are mother forms who of counterknowledge wasintervention. socialized that American attest toas imperial dissonances subject, and intensions a WKHVODJKHDSVRLOVSLOOVDQGRWKHUWR[LFUHVLGXHVVHFUHWHGE\H[WUDFWLYHFDSLWDOLVP7DNLQJJHRORJ\DV travel across borders of states to seek healthcare. These transformations have had their effects on the physical African-American and Palestinian that the borders of theIsraeli US-American empire shown toand befrom grounded in a and concern—born ofown, priortranscends Western interference—for the continued country war that were weresolidarity not silences bloomed to counter practices that independence spoke of and emanating the deconstruction of her totalizing empirical narratives and colonial borders. Asitsof a ERWKGLVFLSOLQDU\IRUPDWLRQDQGDVSURFHVVLWUHDGVWKHODQGDVDUFKLYHRQHWKHUHYHDOVPXWXDOO\ and social bodies of communities, as well as the material life-worlds they inhabit. public sphere. Due to their struggle with Western colonialism, imperialism, and ethnocentrism, both groups Iran through a study of statements by the Supreme Leader and other prominent conservative anti-Western ambiguous zones of affect – and those were navigated differently within and without the domestic circle. FRQVWLWXWLYHKLVWRULHVRIFRORQLDOLVPDQGFDSLWDODVZHOODVWKHSHUVLVWHQFHRINLQVKLSUHODWLRQV signifier of uncanny sites of oppression and silencing, the ghost also points to states of impossibility often findThe themselves ostracized from the public sphere, remaining inadequately visible subalterns. leaders. internal failings the reform movement will, through an examination of the history reform in Drawing upon the frames and of methods of mainstream the sister disciplines of literature and anthropology, this of paper FRQJHDOHGLQVDFUHGJHRORJLFDOYLWDOLWLHVH[SUHVVLYHRILQGLJHQRXVVRYHUHLJQWLHV,WWUHDWVOLWHUDWXUHDV and historical discontinuities associated with white supremacist violence and violations. Although While historically, the African-American civil rights movement had been significantly linked to the their suffering Iran, also be shown to be atensive result a tradition thatpoetry created climate inpersonal which reformist-intellectual was of DQLQWHJUDOSDUWRIWKLVSURFHVVSDUWRIWKHGHWULWXVWKDWFRGHVRQWRHSLVWHPRORJLFDOUHODWLRQVEHWZHHQ unfolds along theoftangled, that together and history/ies, probing representations ghosts and theofstrands ghostly in knot the ofagrand Majaj, Sihab Nyethe and Handal are differently communities inseriously the Arabwith world, events theIranian Middlepopulation. East and North showcreated a renewal of the engaged more thecurrent West than withinthe ThisAmerica climate was largely due to WKHKXPDQDQGWKHPLQHUDODVPXWXDOO\FRQVWLWXWLYHYLWDOLWLHV:KLOHRIIHULQJDWHPSODWHIRUWKH eloquent silences. contextualized, they offer complex ways of framing the fragments and ruptures underlying imperial formerly dynamic connection between African(-American) and Palestinian(-American) solidarity. The 2014 American influence and foreign policy objectives in the pre-revolutionary era. The “failure” of the reform UHFRQILJXUDWLRQRIOLWHUDU\KLVWRU\LQWKHWUDQVLWEHWZHHQQRQFRQWLJXRXVVSDFHVRIFRORQLDOLVPDQG dispossession and repression to call for the revision of critical studies of memory, violence, and violence in cannot Gaza and Ferguson that the ideological targeting oflevel; minority groups brought to the forefront shared movement be explained on asaw purely rather, it is the continuing legacy of athe United HPSLUHLWDOVRDUJXHVIRUDQH[SDQGHGXQGHUVWDQGLQJRIZKDWFRQVWLWXWHVWKHOLWHUDU\GUDZLQJWRJHWKHU empire in the context of the Arab American experience. structure of suffering and solidarity between both groups. Simultaneously, it highlighted WH[WVWKDWKLJKOLJKWWKHJHRJUDSKLFDOSHUDPEXODWLRQVRIH[WUDFWLYHHQWHUSULVHWREHWWHUKLJKOLJKWWKH States intervention that hasexpression created anofenvironment in which reform is difficult to understand within an the Iranian UHODWLRQVKLSEHWZHHQH[WUDFWLRQDQGWKHFKURQRWRSHRIFRXQWHUVRYHUHLJQW\UDFLDOFDSLWDOLVPDQG increase in solidarity-building activism through social media.How does a civil alliance of African-American context and is thus viewed withand suspicion. RFFXSDWLRQ5HDGLQJIURP/HVOLH0DUPRQ6LONR V$OPDQDFRIWKH'HDG$EGHOUDKPDQ0XQLI V&LWLHV and Palestinianindividuals, which is based on the idea of shared (post-)colonial suffering, help revert the RI6DOWDQG*HRUJH(GZDUG3RVW VERWDQLFDOWUHDWLVHVRQWKHIORUDRIJUHDWHU3DOHVWLQHLWWUDFHV Palestinians facelessness in the public sphere and media? I would like to analyze in how far the emergence of UHODWLRQVKLSVEHWZHHQWKHFLUFXODWLRQRI3KHOSV'RGJHDQGWKHHODERUDWLRQRIWHPSRUDOO\RFFXSLHG\HW transnational solidarity allows the subaltern to voice their narratives of dispossession, dislocation and LQVXUJHQWJHRSK\VLFDOLWLHVIURP1HZ0H[LFRWR3DOHVWLQHWRWKH3HUVLDQ*XOI disorientation. This paper discusses how Palestinians as a prosthetic extension/fragment of the American hegemony and African-Americans as a formerly structurally subjugated and contemporarily marginalized group within the American hegemony form an alliance that represents the idea of a transnational subalternity. I want to expand Alex Lubin's recent suggestion that in contexts "Palestinianness and blackness are interchangeable" by analyzing the groups' contemporary inter-affiliation and dialogue. New forms of activism, such as the possibilities provided by social media, enable the transnational linking of suffering by substituting geographical distance with emotional proximity within and outside of subaltern dimensions. Social media provides decolonizing potential as it allows the exchange of narrative, the experience of inter-affiliation, and the formation of interaction. I would like to discuss in how far Afro-Palestinian solidarity movements represent a threat to the white colonial nucleus of American ethnocentrism. How does the margin of the imagined community extend when its fragmented 'Others' are able to connect and ready to interact through activism?
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