Peer-reviewed
Unbearable witness: how Western activists (mis)recognize sexuality in Iran
This contribution proposes a critical analysis of responses in Western gay and lesbian politics to state-defined crimes relating to same-sex sexual behaviour in Iran. It focuses on the Iranian state's execution of Makwan Mouloudzadeh in 2007, for alleged involvement in a rape committed almost a decade before, as well as on other recent images and allegations about rights abuses inside Iran. Using empirical sources, including news and non-governmental organizations' statements, the article examines how gay and lesbian activists in the West misinterpreted the context and reduced the scope of rights violations in a search for 'gay' identity and for 'homophobia'. The article questions how the terms of Western gay politics can erase voices and political agency in describing other cultural situations, through a pursuit of sameness and a strategic misrecognition of otherness that enables domestic political action but posits misleading universals
Article, 2009
Taylor & Francis, 2009