The logics of protection: masculinism and Orientalism in a girl-saving campaign in Chad

The article explores the politicization of sexual violence and the conditions under which this process can paradoxically lead to the erasure of gender and the silencing of those in whose name political actors claim to mobilize. Building on feminist scholarship, it examines the social construction of women’s violability and the logics of protectionist responses to sexual violence. The article is based on a detailed analysis of the gang rape of a high-school girl in Chad that triggered an unprecedented mobilization. Studying both the domestic and transnational campaigns to end sexual violence in Chad, it examines the instrumentalization of the victim’s suffering, the strategies of co-opting women’s rights, and the conflicting framings of the rape that emerged. The article argues that masculinist and Orientalist frames of sexual violence both construct a violated and vulnerable “Other” in need of protection, which in turn justifies the interventions. Ultimately, it provides a critique of the logics of protection, demonstrating how they can reinforce patriarchal norms and Orientalist narratives.