Post Colonial Feminism In Iraq

Problem: How did the United States of America use women to justify intervention in Iraq?

Postcolonial feminism is a relatively new theory that is defined by Wikipedia as “a form of feminism that developed as a response to feminism focusing solely on the experiences of women in western cultures.” This theory is developed from the work of postcolonial theorists who are concerned with evaluating how different imperial and colonial relations throughout the nineteenth century have impacted the way particular cultures view themselves. Postcolonial and feminist theorists have come to find that women and children in other countries such as Iraq are oppressed by men through patriarchy and colonial power. In this case, women in Iraq are oppressed by men and their misogynistic beliefs.

Strategically, it would be useful to speak to women or deemed necessary and justifiable rather than just assuming that who one knows has the same understanding and views that you do. Different people from different countries and views or religions than those of women in America have boundaries of inclusion and exclusion on their maps than we do on our own. In Iraq, women would be stereotyped as victims and men will be seen as their terrorists because women are inferior and constructed as so.

Through analyzing the ways that women in America live, the United States made itself responsible for defending human liberty against violence and aggression in other countries as well.

In Iraq, men were dominant to women and always in control of what goes on in their everyday lives and ultimately everything they do. Women were constructed as inferior to men and in the united states, where we are all granted equality and the same rights, Americans viewed Iraqi women as “victims” whereas the men were viewed as “terrorists” and seen as a threat. In 2003, president Bush pushed hard in congress to send troops to go to Iraq because he believes that Saddam Hussein was killing civilians such as their countries own women and children.

The greatest beneficiaries of America’s non-negotiable demands of “human dignity” would be Iraqi women and children, It was believed that the oppression on them would be lifted and the long captivity of Iraq would come to an end, with a new era of hope beginning. George W. Bush said that “members of Congress of both political parties and members of the United Nations security council, agree that Saddam Hussein is a threat to peace and must disarm.”

Evidently, George Bush in a speech called “George Bush 2003 Speech – Democracy in Iraq” on YouTube discusses Iraqi regimes and dictator Saddam Hussein. Bush claims Hussein has close ties to terrorist organizations and could supply them with means to strike the United States. Bush believes that the danger opposed by Saddam Hussein must be confronted and cannot be ignored, and if it is not, Iraq will be disarmed and the danger will “be removed” Iraq, today, is worse than it was 1,000 years ago because of the United States government. It is not what it looks like on CNN or Fox News or anything else, United States tax money and the profit from it did not in any way profit Iraq or its citizens. The United States invading Iraq made things go from bad to worse in every and any aspect. Women were forced to sell their living room furniture to pay for basic needs like medicine and food. Women were forced into prostitution, even if they had a PhD, and young girls were stopped from going to school to get married at a young age or to work to help support their families.

Conclusively, although Post Colonial feminism is a type of feminism that rejects Western feminism and seeks peaceful solutions for a world where women are essentially marginalized and seek for women’s differences to be enjoyed and celebrated, Women living in non-Western countries do not face the same racism, political effects, cultural effects, or economic effects and are not used to the same upbringings and lifestyle as of those who do. When former President Bush addressed America’s determination to lead the world in confronting a grave threat to peace from Iraq, he made things worse and lead to the downfall of so many more Iraqi civilians and their failure. Bush took an a reality for granted and turned it into oppression by trying to change the lives of Iraqi women and children. Regardless of the context behind the word “woman” the identity of a woman cannot be “fixed”. Bush constructed these women and children as “victims” and their “terrorists” as men. Statistics show the mortality rates of children from 1980-2000 in Iraq and even though the United States was sent to Iraq to “protect” women and children, America doubled that mortality rate. Saddam Hussein did not have any ties with terrorist organizations or terrorism in Iraq prior to the United States involving themselves. The United States went to Iraq and did even more damage, we spiked the mortality rates, caused more terrorism and Iraq to react in a dangerous way, and constructed innocent people as “evil” or “harmful” and imposed racism on an Islamic country where now most people stereotype followers of Islam as “terrorists”. Statistics show that the United States going to Iraq was not a good idea and only made things worse in almost every aspect. “I think American’s have learned, that it’s harder to end wars than it is to begin them.” – Barack Obama, 44th president of the United States.