Abstract
Wounded Afghan interpreters have so far remained a footnote in the stories of Western soldiers despite the ubiquity of injuries among local civilian interpreters employed during the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission (2001–4). The silence around injured Afghan interpreters is politically problematic but also limits academic understanding of the differential gendered impact of injuries on a wider range of actors in conflict, who navigate unequally structured cultural, political, and legal norms in the aftermath of their injuries. Based on unique interview data with injured interpreters in Afghanistan, Turkey, and the UK, this chapter makes three interrelated arguments. First, it argues that when Afghan interpreters were injured, the military brotherhood in which they were already only precariously integrated collapses due to the differential treatment that interpreters receive compared to Western soldiers. Secondly, the chapter shows that injured interpreters, whose employment was often motivated by the responsibility to serve as a family breadwinner, not only lose their ability to provide economically but also find their role of masculine protector jeopardised. Finally, it suggests that while migration becomes an important alternative pathway to livelihood for injured interpreters, their resettlement options are comprised by the material and legal conditions framing their injuries.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Routledge Handbook of Masculinities, Conflict and Peacebuilding |
| Publisher | Routledge |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781003320876 |
| Publication status | Accepted/In press - 15 Oct 2024 |