Guantanamo:A feminist perspective on U.S. human rights violations

Abstract

On 24 May 2004 in London our play Guantanamo, Honour Bound to Defend Freedom opened in Tricycle, a small London theater. It is a play using only the words of the families of British prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay, their censored letters home, and the explanations of their lawyers of the legal black hole their clients are in. It was to be a tiny snapshot of what the war on terror means. But in fact it has proved to be, for many people who saw it or read it in many countries, a vehicle for understanding the profound world power struggle in which we are all, like it or not, involved. Among the major themes that arise from it are: the U.S. readiness to flout all international legal norms; the politicization of the U.S. legal system; the effective acceptance of torture as a tool for U.S. aims, carried out both by the United States and by various allied regimes on behalf of the United States; the impact of this within U.S. society; the assault on civil liberties by governments around the world; the demonization of Muslim men by Western governments, media, and societies; the resistance strategies of Muslim women; and the inevitable effects on the next generation of Muslim children.