Rachel E. Dubrofsky is Associate Professor of Communication at the University of South Florida. She is the author of
Shoshana Amielle Magnet is Associate Professor at the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies at the University of Ottawa. She is the author of
Rachel E. Dubrofsky is Associate Professor of Communication at the University of South Florida. She is the author of
Shoshana Amielle Magnet is Associate Professor at the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies at the University of Ottawa. She is the author of
Violating In/Visibilities: Honor Killings and Interlocking Surveillance(s)
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Published:May 2015
In this chapter, the author examines the ways that surveillance technologies work to discipline different bodies paying particular attention to race and gender. The author focuses on the Shafia murders in Canada as iconized in the mainstream media as honor killings and argues that the invisibility of other kinds of femicides, such as those resulting from domestic violence, sex workers, or indigenous women signals the taken for granted nature of these crimes. In contrast, honor killings are rendered intelligible through the sheer visibility granted to them by the mass media. The author contends that labels such as honor killings abstract these murders from the continuum of femicides, and work as ciphers that signal the threat of Islam. Framed through the lens of Orientalism, these murders are marked as exceptional and justify the surveillance of Muslim bodies.
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