Gender, Genocide, Gaza and the Book of Esther : Engaging Texts of Terror(ism)

Gender, Genocide, Gaza and the Book of Esther bridges the gap between gendered and geopolitical analyses by interrogating both the sexual and ethnic violence embedded in the Book of Esther.While much scholarship has examined the potential genocide of the Jews in the narrative, far less attention has been paid to the Persian “retaliation genocide.” Framed within decolonial feminist perspectives, this book shifts between the harem-the royal institution where women were sequestered for the king’s use-and herem, the practice of divinely sanctioned warfare that justifies the extermination of an enemy.Rather than operating as discrete forms of violence, the book argues that the harem and the herem are co-constitutive, revealing how gendered and ethnic domination function in tandem.Through a combination of narrative inquiry, inter-textual readings, critical discourse analysis, and theological assessments of both the biblical text and its contemporary reception, Gender, Genocide, Gaza and the