“Imperial solidarity”: do queer and trans Afghan Muslims need “saving”?

Abstract

In August 2021, immediately after the abrupt withdrawal of the United States (US) from Afghanistan and the return of the Taliban, “saving” Afghan women and queer and trans Afghans was highlighted as a global humanitarian responsibility, from Canada to the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, France and the US. Echoing Lila Abu-Lughod’s famous question “Do Muslim women need saving?,” in this article, I ask: do queer and trans Afghan Muslims need “saving”? Through an in-depth “de/colonial” ethnographic study with queer and trans Afghan Muslims in Afghanistan and the US, I develop the concept of “imperial solidarity,” which refers to “savior” regimes of Eurocentric, white, liberal, middle-class, and queer and trans unities and sympathies that establish certain forms of queer and trans ties across borders while serving the imperial project of “divide and rule,” invasion and withdrawal, Islamophobia and homophobia, and save and kill. I argue that imperial solidarity situates the West as morally superior and Islam as anti-queer and trans, which then contributes to an already rising Islamophobia. Another political implication of imperial solidarity with which this article engages is queer and trans Afghan Muslims’ troubled sense of (be)longing, both within Muslim communities and broader queer and trans communities.

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