The absent piece of skin: Gendered, racialized and territorial inscriptions of sexual violence during the Bangladesh war ; 'Toward a new feminist theory of rape', Signs ; Remembering to Forget: Public Secrecy and Memory of Sexual Violence in Bangladesh; Abu Ghraib: Arguing against exceptionalism; 'Toward a new feminist theory of rape', Signs ; Remembering to Forget: Public Secrecy and Memory of Sexual Violence in Bangladesh; Abu Ghraib: Arguing against exceptionalism

Abstract This paper addresses how the wombs of women and the absent skin on the circumcised penises of men become the predominant sites on which racialized and gendered discourses operating during the Bangladesh War are inscribed. This is explored by examining instances of sexual violence by Pakista...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Modern Asian studies 2012-11, Vol.46 (6), p.1572
Main Author: MOOKHERJEE, NAYANIKA
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Asian history
Butler, Judith
Colonialism
Exceptionalism
Females
Feminism
Gender
Inscriptions
Intertextuality
Military history
Muslims
Penis
Postcolonialism
Power
Rape
Religious identity
Sex crimes
Skin
Violence
War
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Summary:Abstract This paper addresses how the wombs of women and the absent skin on the circumcised penises of men become the predominant sites on which racialized and gendered discourses operating during the Bangladesh War are inscribed. This is explored by examining instances of sexual violence by Pakistani soldiers and their local Bengali collaborators. The prevalence of these discourses in colonial documents about the Bengali Muslims underscores the role of history, the politics of identity and in the process, establishes its link with the rapes of Bangladeshi women and men. Through this, the relationship between sexual violence and historical contexts is highlighted. I locate the accounts of male violations by the West Pakistani army within the historical and colonial discourses relating to the construction of the Bengali Muslim and its intertextual, contemporary citational references in photographs and interviews. I draw on Judith Butler's and Marilyn Strathern's work on gendering and performativity to address the citational role of various practices of discourses of gender and race within colonial documents and its application in a newer context of colonization and sexual violence of women and men during wars. The role of photographs and image-making is intrinsic to these practices. The open semiotic of the photographs allows an exploration of the territorial identities within these images and leads to traces of the silence relating to male violations. Through an examination of the silence surrounding male sexual violence vis-à-vis the emphasis on the rape of women in independent Bangladesh, it is argued that these racialized and gendered discourses are intricately associated to the link between sexuality and the state in relation to masculinity. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:0026-749X
1469-8099
DOI:10.1017/S0026749X11000783