07. Where Are the Women?: The Representation of Gendered Wartime Violence at Abu Ghraib in U.S. Newspapers

In April of 2004, newspapers in the United States began to print stories unveiling the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. military personnel at Abu Ghraib, a prison in Iraq appropriated for use by the U.S. military. This study examines how a number of newspapers portrayed gender in relation to the abuses at Abu Ghraib and considers what these depictions may suggest about the public acceptance of wartime violence as it links to gender. Literature indicates that gender-based violence during conflict is primarily perpetrated against women, yet content analysis of articles related to Abu Ghraib in the top three national newspapers from 2004-2020 reveals few articles that mention the female prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Instead, the news stories created a narrative in the U.S. that revolved almost exclusively around the male detainees and the U.S. military personnel. Conversely, female Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, despite also experiencing verbal, physical, and sexual abuse, were largely left out of this narrative. Viewed through a feminist lens, findings suggest that when the news of Abu Ghraib had to be released to the American public, the emphasis was placed almost exclusively on the abuses against male Iraqi prisoners, which might evoke less lasting outrage than the abuses against female Iraqi prisoners would have done. Future research is needed to uncover the reasons for the absence of female Iraqi prisoners in the narrative, and to further investigate the media depiction of the female experience during warfare, in general

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Captivity: The case of Iranian prisoners of war in the Iraq-Iran war

During the Persian Gulf War of Iraq-Iran (1980-1988), thousands of Iranians were taken captive by Iraqi troops. These prisoners of war (POWs) had to find ways to enrich and fill their time in prison camps. Learning English was one such activity. This study was carried out to appraise the motivations of the Iranian POWs for learning English, and to understand more about their textbooks, their classroom environment, the teaching methods and techniques employed, the skills emphasized, the teaching aids improvised, the types of exercises mobilized, as well as the test-taking techniques adopted. A relevant corpus of 21 memoirs and 7 interviews with Iranian ex-POWs were analyzed. The research draws upon Maslow’s (1970) “self-actualization” and Frankl’s (1984) “logotherapy” to shed light on the existential aspect of learning. Findings revealed that for these EFL learners, learning English was an attempt to fulfill their potential and/or to make life more meaningful

Iraqi Prisoners in Norway: Educational Background, Participation, Preferences and Barriers to Education

The article aimed to develop knowledge of the educational background, participation and preferences of Iraqi prisoners in Norwegian prisons and obstacles to participating in education. The study is based on interviews with 17 prisoners in three prisons. An important finding is that war and political unrest appear to have been significant causes for respondents to leaving education at various stages. As a result only half of them have as much as one final exam and only three respondents have a certificate of education. Even if the respondents want an education while in prison, and although education is offered in all prisons there is a lack of information about educational opportunities in an understandable language and long waiting time for a place at school. An implication of the study is that the criminal administration system and the educational authorities must take into account the multicultural reality by facilitating education and training offers accordingly

Volume 5 #2 Full Issue

Volume 5 #2 Full Issu

The Ethics Of Unwinnable War

According to just war theory, military campaigns should only be fought as a last resort, with the goal of correcting a grave evil, and where there is a high probability of success. But what happens when a military campaign unravels and becomes unwinnable? How can a leader reconcile just war theory with the need to extricate the country from a quagmire? In recent decades, US presidents have repeatedly faced such moral dilemmas, as campaigns in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq all became unwinnable. When victory is no longer achievable, leaders should dial down the goals of the war, resist the pressure to embrace barbarism, negotiate with the adversary, and seek the best possible peace from the range of plausible alternatives

Conspiracy of Near Silence: Violence against Iraqi Women

The article discusses the various forms of and increase in gender-based violence in Iraq. It also discusses state's policies and attitudes towards violence against women

Hostile Protected Persons or Extra-Conventional Persons: How Unlawful Combatants in the War on Terrorism Posed Extraordinary Challenges for Military Attorneys and Commanders

First, this Article reviews policymakers\u27 and commentators\u27 categorization of participants in Operation Enduring Freedom, the armed conflict in Afghanistan against al Qaeda and Taliban fighters. This Article concentrate specifically on the status of participants operating at the fringes of the categories of persons protected by the Geneva Conventions. It shows, for example, how al Qaeda and the Taliban fighters tested the bounds of the Conventions by employing methods of “warfare” which rendered them non-distinct and therefore made a determination of their status unclear. This Article demonstrates how policymakers and ultimately the U.S. President created a class of persons--so-called extra-conventional persons--who participated in hostilities yet failed to qualify for protection under any of the applicable Geneva Conventions. Second, this Article presents the training and education available to the judge advocates who faced these legal issues. it further presents perspectives on the law of war as it appeared from the resources, education, and training commonly available to deployed judge advocates. This Article ultimately concludes that international law and U.S. military doctrine classify many who participate in hostilities as “protected persons” under the Fourth Geneva Convention--a concept ultimately at odds with the determination made by U.S. policymakers.Third, and in concert with the two issues identified above, this Article describes the enormous challenges these issues created for U.S. military persons participating in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Specifically, it illustrates operational and legal challenges faced by military attorneys and the commanders they advised. It then explores legal issues that arose during the detention and occupation operations with respect to fighters associated with Saddam Fedayeen. Observing apparent similarities between Saddam Fedayeen and Taliban fighters earlier categorized as extra-conventional, this Article describes how, despite similarities in applicable law and attributes, judge advocates determined that these irregular fighters were protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention. It concludes that judge advocates dealt with these challenges responsibly, providing sound legal advice that balanced commanders\u27 mission requirements with the humanitarian spirit of the law of war

Women in Iraq: beyond the rhetoric

At a press conference two weeks before the US-led invasion of Iraq, flanked by four “Women for a Free Iraq,”1 Paula Dobriansky, then undersecretary of state for global affairs, declared: “We are at a critical point in dealing with Saddam Hussein. However this turns out, it is clear that the women of Iraq have a critical role to play in the future revival of their society.” For the Bush administration, Iraqi women would not only be “helping give birth to freedom” in the post-Saddam order.2 US officials spoke publicly about rape, torture and executions of women under Ba‘th Party rule, implicitly linking these atrocities to the necessity for US military action.