Leviathan

I’m thrilled to introduce Voices & Violence, our first issue of 2024-25 featuring a record-breaking thirty articles. As a team, we are so excited to have seen this level of student engagement with Leviathan, particularly considering our mission has always been to amplify student voices, give space to political critique, and to provide a platform for stories beyond ordinary university spaces. Accordingly, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the editorial team for their hard work and commitment to each article, enabling us to provide as many students as possible the opportunity to partake in Leviathan, while giving due thought and attention to each author. Further thanks goes out to the illustration team, without whom each article would not have been brought to life. 

This issue’s theme, Voices & Violence, draws critical attention to issues often overlooked or understudied. Though the image of the world this issue paints is bleak, hope endures. Our authors have devoted  time and attention to shedding light on a plethora of global issues concerning  voices and violence, in so doing underscoring the importance of political education and its translation into action.  

The articles in this issue are arranged thematically, to build a deeper understanding of how voices and violence relate. This issue begins with Rachel Barlow’s critical analysis of how justice systems have failed women subjected to violence, comparing Sarah Everard and Mahsa Amini’s deaths in the UK and Iran, respectively. Next, Edith Alderton explores the creative methods of resistance used by Afghan women to combat the oppressive violence of the Taliban, followed by Angelina Castrucci’s uncovering of similar female resistance in Iran. Johanna Nesselhauf analyses how the racialisation of geographic space in modern Canada perpetuates bodily violence against Indigenous women, and Abby Johnston-Jones explores how oppressive gender norms and stereotypes of girls and women in Niger, particularly the institution of child marriage, has created  a vicious cycle of violence and silence. Whilst Jimena Cardenal thoughtfully analyses the tension between human rights and culture in the case of female genital cutting in Somalia, Renee Phan argues that the resurgence of piracy in the region stems from economic instability and widespread political distrust, emblematic of a failing state system. Next, Claudia Carpenter examines the inherently gendered nature of the British Empire’s colonial project in India, highlighting  systemic effects continuing today. Rodrigo Ramos comparatively  analyses the ongoing impacts of imperialism, understanding East Timor’s difficulty with economic development as  the result of several instances of violent, authoritarian and imperial rule, with Zikra Zuhuree exploring the neocolonial aspects of China and India’s race to establish their power in South Asia.

The first of several articles analysing LGBTQ+ issues, Tharun Venkat questions whether South Africa, as the ‘Rainbow Nation’, has fulfilled its constitutional mission of equality, arguing that the compounding impacts of racial discrimination and economic inequalities detrimentally affects Queer South Africans. Subsequently, Gina Goodfellow analyses the continuities between the imposition of homophobia by Western imperial powers and Israel’s modern pinkwashing practices, and Madeline Schwarz highlights how Canada’s LGBTQ+ movement has effectively excluded Two-Spirit and Indigenous voices. Utilising the documentary, All Out! Dancing in Dulais (1986), Joe Ellis aspires to paint a picture  of solidarity between Queer activists and striking miners over shared experiences of oppression at the hand  of neoliberal violence. Ruby Scott goes on to critically analyse how social media’s distortion of reality perpetuates hate speech in the context of ‘Israel/Palestinian’ online discourses, and Adelaide Tricaud examines the power of language in solidifying and stratifying social hierarchies in France. Similarly, Imaan Shamsi analyses the role of linguistic divisions in India and Pakistan as contributing to nationalism and its violent manifestations.

Haikal Adzmir and Aisyah Ab Halim both highlight the oppression faced by ethnic minorities in Southeast Asia in the cases of Rohingya refugees and a crisis of statelessness and post-genocidal symbolic violence toward Sri Lanka’s Tamil community, respectively. Gabrielle Yurin likewise looks at the experience of ethnic minorities, arguing that Atatürk’s policies aiming to construct Turkish republicanism resulted in policies of forced assimilation and ethnocide endured  by Kurds. Elham Khosravipour  analyses violence against the Kurdish population, this time in Iraq and at the hands of the Ba’th Party. Ragna Engseth examines the changing policies affecting an increasingly securitised stance toward Russian-speaking minorities in Estonia after Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Drawing on similar themes of securitisation theory, Jerome Daugny considers whether national security policies should supersede the law and the potential dangers of such a system. Daniel Cook  analyses whether policies in El Salvador aimed at curbing gang violence have brought  about security and safety, at the expense of democratic institutions. Allyson Crow highlights how systemic violence against journalists and the resulting cementing of silence zones enables corruption and the decline of democracy in Mexico.

Qixuan Ding considers the difficulty in defining and enforcing an internationally-recognised definition of hate speech, noting the delicate ‘tightrope’ between preventing the harm induced by hate speech and protecting freedom of speech. Next, Gideon Eriaye analyses the knock-on effects of sanctions on Venezuela’s citizenry, highlighting how sanctions can serve to instantiate authoritarianism, perpetuate repression and cause socio-political unrest. Marukh Khurshid analyses how the framing of the US’s involvement in torture at Guantánamo Bay as exceptional and necessary  has allowed prisoners, often innocent, to be left behind without recourse to remedies. Echoing the theme of being ‘left behind’, Jitka Burian argues that historical legacies from Soviet occupation, widespread secularism and a generally homogenous population have resulted in  left-leaning parties failing  to address the oppression faced by marginalised groups in the Czech Republic. Finally, Adrian Chung intertwines first-person accounts and historical sources  to analyse the impacts of the continuing division of North and South Korea on families split across both sides of the border.

 The team at Leviathan thank you for taking the time to read these articles. As some articles deal with heavy and/or sensitive topics we encourage you to read carefully and thoughtfully. Every author has written about a topic for a particular reason, and I commend their efforts in raising  awareness of  those political groups, and people, often underrepresented or subject to violence. As the array of topics covered in this issue demonstrates, voicelessness and violence go hand in hand. Accordingly, we hope that this edition may serve, at least partially, to give voice to those subjected to violence.

Sincerely,

Grace Hitchcock

Editor-in-Chief