The Subsequent Effects of Sexualized Violence Against Iraqi

Prisoners at Abu Ghraib

Amal Michelle Salamat

1000500442

WGS 373

April 5, 2015

Sarah Snyder
 Amal Michelle Salamat
1000500442
WGS 373
April 5, 2015
Sarah Snyder

The Subsequent Effects of Sexualized Violence Against Iraqi Prisoners at Abu Ghraib

In 2003, the United States of America lead the invasion of Iraq on the grounds that the

Iraqi government was harbouring weapons of mass destruction. Together with the United

Kingdom, Australia, Poland and Spain, the United States went on a one month invasion of Iraq,

successfully toppling Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime (Webster, 2011). Following the

invasion, Iraq was disrepair and the Iraq war lasted for almost a decade (Webster, 2011).

Despite the fact that the death toll of Iraqi civilians was in the hundreds of thousands, anti-Arab

and anti-Muslim rhetoric continued to increase within the United States and Western culture

(Puar, 2006). Subsequently in 2003 reports published by Amnesty International revealed that

members of the United States Army had been engaging in human rights abuses against Iraqi

prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. These abuses include torture, rape, and sodomy and

murder (Hersh, 2004). The government of the United States condemned these abuses and

consequently removed seventeen soldiers and officers from the line of duty and imprisoned two

(Hersh, 2004). This event has lead to larger debates regarding torture, accountability and

America's involvement in the Iraq war.

This paper will argue that sexualized forms of violence were used against the Iraqi

prisoners of Abu Ghraib as a way to justify the American invasion and the subsequent American

control of Iraqi land. Sexualized forms of violence that were used against the prisoners were the

Americans' way of reinforcing the social order. This paper will begin by discussing Judith

Buter's idea of gender performativity and the ways in which American soldiers, both male and
female, were performing a masculanized form of gender by sexually abusing the Iraqi prisoners.

Further, this paper will then examine the ways in which the sexual abuses against the Iraqi

prisoners contributed to American anti-Arab rhetoric which consequently justified American

control over Iraqi policy and resources. Finally, the ways in which the sexualized abuses

ultimately contributed to the idea that Arab men were sexual deviants and thus justified the

American invasion will be discussed.

The sexualized violence used against the prisoners of Abu Ghraib was a way to feminize

the racialized Iraqi prisoners, thus subordinating them and ensuring the Americans' position as

the more powerful entity who is therefore justified in invading their land. Drawing on Judith

Butler's ideas of gender performativity, the sexualized violence used by the American soldiers

could be described as their method of gender performativity (Mookherjee, 2012). Gender

performativity is a term coined by Judith Butler that is used to describe the idea that gender is a

social construct that is constructed through the repetitive performance of ones own gender

(Butler, 1990). Essentially, through the rape and sexualized torture, the American soldiers

performed masculinity while simultaneously feminizing and dominating the Iraqi prisoners

(Mookherjee, 2012). Their gendered performance of masculinity reinforces their position at the

top of the social hierarchy while reducing the brown-skinned Iraqi prisoners as subordinates.

Essentially, the feminization and consequent subordination of the Iraqi prisoners by the

American soldiers was meant as a way to reinforce their position in the social order. However, it

should also be noted that white female American soldiers had also participated in the sexualized

violence, and the subsequent feminization and subordination of the Iraqi prisoners (Razack,

2005). Despite the fact that these women were participating in an act that was essentially meant

to denigrate and subordinate their own gender, their actions could be described as an attempt to
denounce and disassociate themselves from their female gender as a way to participating in the

white patriarchy. (Razack, 2005). Their acts could be described as 'deviant', or deviating from

what the white patriarchy expects from females as gendered norms however their acts are a way

to gain acceptance by the white patriarchy, at the Iraqi prisoners' expense.

This phenomenon is also apparent in other cases, specifically in the murder of Pamela

George and the subsequent actions of the mothers of her murderers (Razack, 2000). In 1995,

Pamela George, an indigenous woman, was hired for her sexual services by two young, white

men. Taken to the outskirts of the city, the men sexually assaulted her and followed by beating

her to death (Razack, 2000). One of her murders eventually confessed to his mother what had

happened and rather than advising her son to go to the police, she suggested she call into

crimestoppers with a false tip (Razack, 2000). She also attempted to wash off any evidence that

was present on her sons jeans(Razack, 2000).

The similarity between these two cases is the fact that both sets of women, the mothers of

Pamela George’s murders and the female soldiers involved in the Abu Ghraib case, disregarded

the immorality of their actions and more importantly, refused to see their victims as human.

Ultimately, both sets of women dehumanized their victims by disregarding their bodily integrity.

Both sets of women participated in these acts of dehumanization as a way of participating in and

ultimately to be accepted by the white patriarchy, securing their position as superior to their

racialized victims.

Moreover, the violation of the Iraqi prisoners' bodies contributes to the idea that their

bodies are violable and therefore their land is violable as well (Smith, 2005). The idea that Iraqi

bodies and land are inherently violable is promoted through the actions of the American military.

The degeneration of Iraqi citizens, through actions such as the sexualized tortures of Abu
Ghraib's prisoners, paints the Iraqi population as subordinate or 'animalistic' and animalistic

people are not fit to govern for themselves (Fanon, 1961). This idea is presented in American

efforts to instill 'democracy' and an Iraqi leader that represents American interests following their

invasion of the country. Iraq's new constitution was drafted by Iraq's Governing Council; a body

of Iraqi citizens selected by American policy makers and the Coalition forces, a group of of

allied Western countries (Stover et. al., 2005). Essentially, the American forces determined that

the Iraqis were not fit to govern their own country without some sort of American supervision.

The sexualized torture and rape of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib thus further contributed the

rhetoric that Arabs are subordinate to the powerful, white Americans. Again, this reinforces

America's position at the top of the social hierarchy.

Further, this notion is apparent when considering the American military's actions towards

the prisoners of Abu Ghraib, the bombings of Iraqi cities and the unlawful stripping of natural

resources from Iraqi land such as oil (Nelson, 2010). Iraq has the world's third largest oil

reserves in the world and access to Iraqi oil was one of the main motives of America's invasion

of Iraq (Bonds, 2013). In order to justify the invasion, subsequently strip Iraq of its natural

resources and to have underlying control of Iraqi politics, American forces painted Iraqi men as

sexual deviants and portrayed the women of Iraq as desperately in need of liberation. The

American soldiers attempts at feminizing the Iraqi prisoners through sexualized forms of

violence could also be described as a way of encouraging the rhetoric that Arab men are sexual

deviants which further contributes to the justification of the invasion and occupation of their

land. Following America's war on terror, the anti-Arab rhetoric included insinuations that Arab

men were perverse, paedophilic, homosexual and as sexual deviants (Puar, 2006).
 The rape and torture of the Iraqi prisoners contributes to this anti-Arab rhetoric as the

pictures that have been released displaying the tortures portray Arab men in compromising

positions, in which they are sodomized, leashed and bounded (Puar, 2005). These pictures

portray the Arab men as subordinate, feminized and sexually deviant. This rhetoric is used to

'other' the Arab population and dehumanize them, justifying the occupation because Arab men

are 'bad people' who are sexually perverse and deny their women basic human rights (Heck and

Schlag, 2012).

Moreover, this anti-Arab rhetoric of sexual deviance is also used to justify the American

invasion of Iraq, as a way to 'liberate' Muslim women living in these regions from their deprived,

abusive and sexually deviant husbands (Smith, 2005). Abused Middle Eastern women are further

displayed in American magazines with mutilated body parts and are the poster children of

'oppressed Muslim women' who are in desperate need of American liberation (Heck and Schlag,

2012). Thus, this anti-Arab rhetoric, fuelled by the images of Abu Ghraib prisoners, is used to

justify the American invasion of the Middle East in which people who are indigenous to these

lands are killed and the land is stripped of its natural resources.

Ultimately, the sexualized violence that was used against the Iraqi prisoners of Abu

Ghraib has contributed to anti-Arab rhetoric which further justifies America's invasion of Iraq.

America subsequently used sexualized violence against Iraqi prisoners as a way to paint Iraqi

men as sexually deviant. Furthermore, the sexualized abuses used against the Iraqi prisoners was

America's way of reassuring themselves of the social order and thus, justified their consequent

killing, stripping and control of Iraqi people and land.

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