[TCW Reads] The Right to Maim
by Jasbir K. Puar, a co-facilitation with the Decolonial Feminist Collective
It’s Free Palestine, Free Haiti, Free Congo, Free Sudan, Free Tigray, Free the Black Diaspora everywhere that we are, free the people and free the land. Why? Because, like a web, every struggle for liberation, every struggle for freedom, every struggle for self-determination and dignity links back to the same parasitic host – the Western imperial and capitalistic war-mongering project. These words that I wrote in last week’s newsletter still ring true. I pray that your energy, your heart, your mind, and your spirit are renewed to remain in this struggle.
a winter study group invitation
To study and struggle are part of our commitments here at TCW. So, join us next month, where The Conflicted Womanist (TCW), in collaboration with the Decolonial Feminist Collective (DFC), will co-facilitate Jasbir Puar’s text, The Right to Maim, for a study and reading discussion.
Puar unveils how The Right to Maim, crafted by Israel as a genocidal tactic against Palestinian people, is put into practice by “the logic of elimination (including maiming & injuring), debility, disability, and capacity”1 to anchor the spread of imperialism and racialized capitalism through the control of bodies and populations.
We’re still witnessing these horrors happening in Palestine, like: the Israeli bombing of bakeries, blocking humanitarian aid of food & medical supplies from entering, destroying water sources, bombing hospitals meant for rehabilitation, dropping white phosphorus gas and toxins to poison air quality, and using missiles & bullets on the ground — all of these and more, used to permanently disable the Palestinian people, to damage present infrastructure, and hamper any possibility of resistance against Israel settler presence, are case after case example of what Puar’s text illuminates.
In this space, we’ll discuss and contend with how the practice of “the right to maim” is an affront to the Palestinian people and how imperial, colonial, and capitalistic state actors use these tactics repeatedly, especially in the ongoing genocides happening in Sudan, Congo, and Tigray. Between liberation struggles, disability justice, reproductive justice, biopolitics, and the affront to the sacredness of our bodies/minds/spirits, we plan to use our time to consider and strategize future possibilities of resistance against “the right to maim.”
reading links/study group information
The full PDF text of Jasbir Puar’s The Right To Maim: download here.
Register for the TCW/DFC winter reading group offering here. The dates are December 14th, January 4th & 11th at 7-9pm EST. After registering, you can save these times to your calendar.
*completing the reading isn’t a requirement for attendance*
stay connected
If you haven’t already, keep engaged with TCW on our Instagram @theconflictedwomanist.
With love and commitment,
Chinyere