Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-9nwgx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-20T23:43:36.075Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Obscene Undersides: Women and Evil between the Taliban and the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Mary Anne Franks
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper proposes to supplement an American self-identity predicated on a model of absolute difference from the Taliban (good versus evil, etc.) by exploring affinities between their respective ideologies. The place of “woman,” within and through the preponderance of sexual exploitation/violence common to both, is the starting point of this analysis. This article reads the two conflicting powers in a Lacanian/Žižekian dyad of the “Law” and its “obscene superego underside.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 18 , Issue 1: Special Issue: Feminist Philosophy and the Problem of Evil , Winter 2003 , pp. 135 - 156
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barthes, Roland. 1998. Striptease. In A Barthes reader, trans. and ed. Sontag, Susan. New York: Hill and Wang.Google Scholar
Baudrillard, Jean. 1996. The perfect crime, trans. Turner, Chris. London, New York: Verso.Google Scholar
Bhabha, Homi K. 1999. Liberalism's sacred cow. In Is multiculturalism bad for womens? Okin, Susanet al. Princeton: Princeton UP.Google Scholar
Blum, William. 2000. Rogue state: A guide to the world's only superpower. Monroe, Me.: Common Courage Press.Google Scholar
Coomaraswamy, Radhika. 2000. UN special report on Afghanistan. E/CN.4/2000/68 Add. 4. Integration of the Human Rights of Women and the Gender Perspective.Google Scholar
Dave, Kushal, and Schoenfeld, Alan. 2000. War of words: East and West clash at Master's Tea. Yale Herald Online. Retrieved 15 May 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.yaleherald.com/archive/xxix/2000.01.28/news/p4taliban.html.Google Scholar
Irigaray, Luce. 1985. This sex which is not one, trans. Porter, Catherine and Burke, Carolyn. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Khan, M. Ilyas. 1999. Beyond good and evil. Herald Magazine. Cited on RAWA Web site. Retrieved 12 November 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://rawa.fancymarketing.net/ilyas.htm.Google Scholar
Kolhatkar, Sonali. 2002. ‘Saving’ Afghan women. Znet. Retrieved 11 May 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.zmag.org/ZNET.htm.Google Scholar
Lacan, Jacques. 1988. On feminine sexuality: The limits of love and knowledge: The seminar of Jacques Lacan book XX: Encore 1972–73, trans. Fink, Bruce, ed. Miller, Jacques‐Alain. New York, London: W. W. Norton and Co.Google Scholar
Marsden, Peter. 1999. The Taliban: War, religion and the new order in Afghanistan. London, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Martini, Virgilio. 1969. II mondo senza donne. Lido di Iesolo: Tritone.Google Scholar
Moghadam, Valentine M. 1999. Revolution, religion, and gender politics: Iran and Afghanistan compared. Journal of Women's History 10(4): 172–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Okin, Susan Moller. 1999. Is multiculturalism bad for women? In Is multiculturalism bad for women? ed. Cohen, Joshua, Howard, Matthew, and Nussbaum, Martha. Princeton: Princeton UP.Google Scholar
Paterson, Maggie ed., 2002. A new freedom? Amnesty 112(March/April): 6 Revolutionary Afghan Women's Association. 1997. Retreived 29 September 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://rawa.fancymarketing.net/index.html.Google Scholar
El Saadawi, Nawal. 2002. Globalisation, fundamentalism, and feminism. Lecture given 13 May at St. Antony's College, Oxford University.Google Scholar
Saba, Sahar. 2001. CNN interview. Retrieved 7 January 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.cnn.com/2001/COMMUNITY/11/19/saba.cnna.Google Scholar
Winter, Bronwyn. 2001. Fundamental misunderstandings: Issues in feminist approaches to Islamism. Journal of Women's History 13(1): 9–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Žižek, Slavoj. 1989. The sublime object of ideology. London, New York: Verso.Google Scholar
Žižek, Slavoj. 1994. Metastases of enjoyment: Six essays on woman and causality. London and New York: Verso.Google Scholar
Žižek, Slavoj. 1996. I hear you with my eyes. In Gaze and voice as love objects, ed. Salecl, Renata and Žižek, Slavoj. Durham, London: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Žižek, Slavoj. 1997. Plague of fantasies. London and New York: Verso.Google Scholar
Žižek, Slavoj. 2000. On belief. London and New York: Verso.Google Scholar
Žižek, Slavoj. 2002. Welcome to the desert of the real. The Symptom: online journal for lacan.com (spring/summer) 2. Retreived 10 April 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.lacan.com/newspaper2.htm.Google Scholar