Short thread on need to decolonize commentary on Middle East
Today almost every journalist asked me (and correctly so) why an Iranian general was in #Iraq Non of them, however, asked why American generals and thousands of soldiers are in Iraq. Why? This question calls for interrogating media and knowledge production about the Middle East
This knowledge production is based on disregard of geography and history when it comes to actions of e.g. Iran, while centering those aspects in analysis of actions of US. But actions of Iran don’t take place in a vacuum but within INTERnational relations and historical contexts
So can one understand presence of Soleimani and Iran in Iraq, without presence of US in Iraq since 2003? Not really, and this doesn’t mean condoning any foreign presence in Iraq
Knowledge production in the West on Middle East that berefts it of geography and time results in epistemic violence, which enables economic and military violence against Middle Easterners.
Acknowledging this doesn’t mean that Iranian rulers don’t use the same forms of violence against ordinary Iranians. They do when they deny their own role in the suffering of Iranians through eg repression. But here geography is important in another way:
In the West, many journalists are very well aware of distortions coming from Iranian leaders, but less so of their own positionality and the distortions that come from those in power in western capitals and work in much more subtle ways. But fortunately there are many exceptions
