AN EXERCISE IN WORLDMAKING 2009 - ISS

196 TARA TABASSI
TEXT AS SOCIAL PHENOMENON
WHAT EFFECTS IT ACHIEVES AND HOW
The most vividly disturbing effect of this article is its existence in a
highly politicized and militarized period. Imperative is reflection upon
how it uses deceptive political representation of Afghanistan to strategically
justify violent U.S. invasion. Representation is particularly effective
in descriptions of Pashtunis as inherently violent, with the existence of
the Taliban as the ruling Pashtun elite and U.S. nemesis. Conspicuously
absent is ANY mention of U.S. participation in the conflict. There are
underlying assumptions of justification for using force against the Taliban,
as means of controlling their violent inherency and fanaticism. The
suggestions of Islam’s imminent threat, found both in statements of culture
and faith, and hopeless representations of Gula arguably conclude
with the need for sustained military invasion into Afghanistan, and the
importance of U.S. influence to bring about change and ‘save’ nameless
victimized women, such as Gula.
In light of the 1985 photograph and the 2002 sequel claiming to focus
on Gula, effective objectification occurs. Reflecting on dehumanization,
Said states, ‘Orientalism’s failure [has] been human as much as intellectual;…
in having to take up a position of irreducible opposition to a region
of the world it considered alien to its own, Orientalism failed to
identify with human experience’ (1978:328). Orientalism’s failure is evident,
particularly in Gula’s dehumanization, subtly achieved by maintaining
namelessness and allowing her space only at the article’s end to make
her own statements (dismissed either by male relatives or anti-Islamic
discourse). Dehumanization is also manifested in who is given priority
and ontological value: the photographer and his quest. McCurry’s letter
states that he would ‘like her to look back in ten years and be happy this
happened.’ However amiable that he mentions her well-being, it assumes
the ‘finding’ was not carried out for himself, his career, the magazine, the
EXPLORER’s adventure, the voyeuristic Western audience, or U.S. humanitarian
interventionist discourse, but for her and her happiness.
CONCLUSION
Statements about her leathery skin or glaring eyes disturb me and I wonder
if Gula is aware of those hurtful descriptions. Would she agree that
she never had a happy day except perhaps her wedding day? How did