Sexual Assault as a Colonial Ideology to Annihilate the Iraqi National Identity in Rasha Fadhil's Ishtar in Baghdad

Abstract

Regardless of the outcome of events consequently, a person's identity throughout conflicts and wars has a lasting effect on the psyche of a nation, leaving a legacy of trauma, suffering, and sorrow. A nation's psychological and symbolic components, such as the identity of those impacted, their process of healing, and their sympathy for the deceased, are also affected by these wounds, in addition to its physical assets, such as its buildings, artefacts, and natural landscapes. Rasha Fadhil in her dramatic text Ishtar in Baghdad employed the Iraqi mythology to highlight the importance of Iraq's historical culture to its national identity. This study investigates the role of the Iraqi mythology in exposing US forces practices to erasure Iraq cultural history. Moreover, the study examines the sexual assault as a US forces ideology to annihilate Iraq's national identity through the lens of the cultural genocide. The study aims to contribute a deeper understanding of the annihilation of national identity via sexual assault due to occupation ideology.