by Pablo A. Rodriguez-Merino, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Defence and International Affairs at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst

This talk has been organised by EASt and the REMOTE XUAR project

This talk will investigate how the Chinese state rationalizes and justifies its treatment of Turkic Muslim women in Xinjiang through a gendered hierarchy of power ingrained in China's counterterrorism discourse. It will explore how Chinese state representations of 'Xinjiang women' reinforce stereotypes of female powerlessness and portray female Turkic Muslim activists as negligent mothers or as having moral defects, denying them agency in the process. It will also analyse the construction of the Chinese state as a 'savior' that offers 'vocational education' and 'training' to liberate women from their 'extremist' existence while presenting Xinjiang as a modern, metropolitan space for a new type of agentic Uyghur woman. Overall, the session will shed light on the intersection of gender, politics, and human rights in Xinjiang while reflecting on the implications of stripping Uyghur women of their voice and autonomy in the name of providing agency under the 'People's War on Terror' apparatus.

Pablo A. Rodriguez-Merino is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Defence and International Affairs at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He is interested in political violence, terrorism, and security narratives.

Tuesday 21th November 2023 at 3 pm (CET)

This event will be held remotely

Link for teams meeting here
Meeting ID: 383 888 272 514
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