<p>Upon the international community’s exit from Afghanistan in August 2021, the West made Afghanistan into a crisis, covering up its decades of violence while dehumanizing Afghans. Afghanistan was constructed as a site of oppression and homophobia, allowing the West to situate itself once again as not only ‘civilized’ but ‘queerly civilized’. From the United States to Canada, France and Ireland, saving the ‘at risk’ Afghan queers, trans and women became an international humanitarian responsibility. How and why did queer and trans Afghans all a sudden become “at risk” and “in need of saving” individuals? How did the Western governments and humanitarian regimes politicize queer and trans Afghan lives and “savings”? Based on a de/colonial ethnography of the Afghan evacuations at the moment of humanitarian exit, this article introduces the concept of ‘homo-humanitarianism’ through which the West so-called saved queer and trans Afghans upon/post its abrupt withdrawal while constructing Afghanistan as a site of perpetual violence and Afghans as homophobic.</p>

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Homo-humanitarianism: queering the Afghan crisis and evacuations

  • Ahmad Qais Munhazim

摘要

Upon the international community’s exit from Afghanistan in August 2021, the West made Afghanistan into a crisis, covering up its decades of violence while dehumanizing Afghans. Afghanistan was constructed as a site of oppression and homophobia, allowing the West to situate itself once again as not only ‘civilized’ but ‘queerly civilized’. From the United States to Canada, France and Ireland, saving the ‘at risk’ Afghan queers, trans and women became an international humanitarian responsibility. How and why did queer and trans Afghans all a sudden become “at risk” and “in need of saving” individuals? How did the Western governments and humanitarian regimes politicize queer and trans Afghan lives and “savings”? Based on a de/colonial ethnography of the Afghan evacuations at the moment of humanitarian exit, this article introduces the concept of ‘homo-humanitarianism’ through which the West so-called saved queer and trans Afghans upon/post its abrupt withdrawal while constructing Afghanistan as a site of perpetual violence and Afghans as homophobic.