Liberation at Gunpoint
The Politics of Feminist Imperialism

Socialism 2015

July 02, 2015

The militarization of women’s rights received a new lease on life with the US/NATO intervention in Afghanistan under the auspices of “rescuing Afghan women.” While such calls for the liberation of women in the Global South have a long history in the West going back to the heyday of colonialism in the 19th century, Kumar argues that the current conjuncture is both similar to, and different from, earlier periods. She sets out to deepen our understanding of Imperialist Feminism by tying together imperial appropriations of women’s rights with the neoliberal attack on social services which has precipitated the “NGO-ization of feminism” and a reframing of women’s rights in the 21st century in line with the priorities of empire in the neoliberal era.

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