The Force of Writing in Genocide: On Sexual Violence in Al-Anafāl Operations and Beyond. In Sanford, V, Stefatos, K. & Salvi, C. M. (eds.) Gender Violence in Peace and War: States of Complicity.
Author:
Moradi, F.
Date:
2016
Language:
English
Region:
Middle East
Country:
Iraq
Full Harvard Reference:
Moradi, F. (2016). The Force of Writing in Genocide: On Sexual Violence in Al-Anafāl Operations and Beyond. In Sanford, V, Stefatos, K. & Salvi, C. M. (eds.) Gender Violence in Peace and War: States of Complicity. (pp 102-115) Rutgers University Press
How is sexual violence rendered public in the aftermath of genocide, in a world saturated with the political, social, and religious order of female physical intactness? This chapter explores the testimonies of Kurdish female survivors of the Iraqi Ba‘thi state’s genocide, that is, the al-Anfāl (“spoils” in Arabic) operations of 1987–1991,¹ the treatment of captured women as “spoils,” and the silencing of their traumatic experiences. The chapter also analyses the ways in which testimonies of female abduction and sexual violence enter the public realm, only to be silenced again in the Kurdistan region.