Helyeh_Doutaghi

The entire handbook is a gem. It contains a wealth of chapters that conceptualize key concepts and issues in politics and society from the perspective of the Global South. Shireen Hassim & Anna Korteweg have been amazing editors. e-elgar.com/shop/usd/handb

I'm looking forward to presenting research that builds on this work at the @esil-sedi.bsky.social conference in Berlin on September 12th. @cailesil.bsky.social

Other authors have sketched a variety of techniques of producing ignorance. In our case we highlight: insistence on uncertainty (as opposed to denial), rejection of external knowledges, over-valuing of own institutional knowledges, and a lack of effort to know more & better. 3/

New co-authored chapter alert!
What if we think of institutional ignorance as a practice and achievement rather than a failure? Using the case of the US military's responses to civilian casualty allegations as an example, we develop suggestions for researching organized ignorance. 1/

The chapter has been marinating for a while; an early draft was presented in March 2023. @helyehdoutaghi.bsky.social and Hijaab Yahya have been ownderful co-authors. Many thanks our collaborators at @airwars.bsky.social who are doing the work of documenting civilian harm against organized ignorance.

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📝 Out now from Vol. 53, Issue 2 is a new article "Privileged and Other Civilians: Hierarchies of Credibility, Security, and Compensation in Afghanistan and Iraq" by @christianew.bsky.social, Helyeh Doutaghi, Hijaab Yahya, Abdul Basir Yosufi, and Leah Wilson ⤵️ journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

In contemporary armed conflicts, not all civilians are equal. There are steep hierarchies between local and international civilians in terms of security, compensation (if they are harmed) and credibility. Our new article in @millenjournal.bsky.social shows differential treatment of civilians. 1/

Our analysis also speaks to genocide in Palestine. In this, we honor the legacy of journalists like Hossam, who gave his life exposing the violence and the hierarchies of credibility that devalue Palestinian lives. May our work carry forward his truth./end

Rather than translating practices of unequal civilian recognition and protection into law, we should be working on recognizing and mitigating the existing inequalities that are shaped by the gendered and racialized ideologies that shape Western imperial missions in West Asia./5

The legal category of the civilian has regularly and predictably failed to protect non-European non-combatants in practice. The stratification of security, credibility, and compensation among civilians mirrors the political & epistemic dynamics of the wars in which it occurs./4

Privileged and Other Civilians: Hierarchies of Credibility, Security, and Compensation in Afghanistan and Iraq - Christiane Wilke, Helyeh Doutaghi, Hijaab Yahya, Abdul Basir Yosufi, Leah Wilson, 2025 The distinction between civilians and combatants is central to international humanitarian law. Yet are there distinctions among civilians that scholars of inter...

What do these practices of recognizing, compensating, believing, and protecting civilians stratified by race, gender, and proximity to Western organizations suggest about the legal status of the civilian? 3/ journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Building on work on gendered & racialized imaginaries of civilianhood, we find that the epistemic work required to convince the US military that victims were in fact civilians was made easier when Western orgs (Reuters/MSF) claimed victims as employees or patients. 2/

Our article is out in @millennjournal.bsky.social, co-authored w/ @christianew.bsky.social,Hijaab, Leah & Basir. Drawing on Iraq & Afghanistan, we argue when civilians r harmed by US forces, their proximity to Western institutions shapes their credibility & compensation. 1/

**MAY 2025 NEWSLETTER**
Read (and subscribe to) our latest newsletter, incl. news on:

-our annual lecture with @feministonmarx.bsky.social
-solidarity with @helyehdoutaghi.bsky.social
-the first ever UK legal workers' inquiry
-lawyering for trade union rights
And more!
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Few humans would choose to lose their life or job for what is right, but much less than that would have gone a long way here. For the latest on this case and Yale's complicity, see this @dropsitenews.com interview with Dr. Helyeh Doutaghi www.dropsitenews.com/p/exclusive-...

Yale Law Scholar Suspended After AI Calls Her a Terrorist A Yale scholar has been banned from campus after an "AI-empowered" blog alleged ties to an pro-Palestine activist group.

I think I may vomit.
I’m in shock.

One of the most prestigious legal institutions in America just suspended an International Legal Scholar, because a far right AI model analyzed her SPEECH, and deemed her a terrorist.

And Yale Law School *complied* w/the AI allegations.

A must read. Terrifying

March 12, 2025 Suspended for Pro-Palestine Speech: My Statement on Yale Law School's Embrace of Al-Generated Smears My name is Helyeh Doutaghi. I am a scholar of international law and geopolitical economy. My research engages with Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), postcolonial critiques of law, and the global political economy of sanctions. I have specifically examined the mechanisms and consequences of economic warfare on Iran, as well as the forms of knowledge produced in International Humanitarian Law (IHL) to obscure and shield U.S. military operations from accountability. On October 1, 2023, I was appointed Deputy Director of the Law and Political Economy (LPE) Project and joined the team. I also held the position of Associate Research Scholar at Yale Law School (YLS), a non-tenured faculty role without teaching responsibilities. On the morning of March 3rd, I was notified of an online report about me. An obscure Al-powered right-wing Zionist platform called "Jewish Onliner" published a report falsely accusing me of being a "terrorist". Rather than defend me, the Yale Law School moved within less than 24 hours of learning about the report to place me on leave.

Helyehs statement 1/4

YLS places research scholar on “immediate administrative leave” over alleged ties to terrorist organization Yale Law School placed Helyeh Doutaghi on administrative leave following reports of her alleged connection to the Samidoun Network, a pro-Palestinian group designated as a terrorist organization in th...

So Yale Law essentially terminated one of their resident scholars, Helyeh Doutaghi, as a result of her Palestinian advocacy.

The way she was treated should be deeply embarrassing to Yale Law, and to the @lpeproject.bsky.social specifically: yaledailynews.com/blog/2025/03...

Dr. Doutaghi said the actions against her are part of an attempt to silence scholars. “This is the type of thing that happens under fascist dictatorships, which Donald Trump is trying to establish,” she said in the interview. The article about Dr. Doutaghi was published on March 2 on Jewish Onliner. On its website and on Substack, Jewish Onliner says it is “empowered by A.I. capabilities.” It does not identify any reporters on its site. An effort to reach Jewish Onliner for comment elicited a response from “JO,” which identified itself as an A.I. assistant developed by Jewish Onliner. Later, emails from the site said that, while it uses A.I. to enhance research, fact-checking and rapid content creation, the final edits are done by humans. The identities of the news site’s staff were kept private out of concern for “professional repercussions, doxxing, etc.,” the site said.

We are at post 9-11 levels of hysteria (with no terrorist attack) combined with 2025 surveillance and misinformation.
A scholar at Yale suspended when an AI-driven article, co-authored by humans who want to remain anonymous (doxxing is bad!!) labels her a terrorist.
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/12/u...

Yale Scholar Banned After A.I. News Site Accuses Her of Terrorist Link The deputy director of a liberal project at Yale Law School was put on leave over allegations that she is linked to Samidoun, a group the U.S. government has said funds terrorists.

This story seems almost unbelievable. Yale Law School suspended Helyeh Doutaghi, an international law scholar, because an AI-powered news site claimed she had ties to terrorists, which she denies. How is an AI-powered site able to dictate the employment status of someone at a leading university?

Yale Law School has suspended Helyeh Doutaghi, the Deputy Director of the Law and Political Economy Project and an Associate Research Scholar. The decision follows a report from an AI-powered Zionist platform that targeted her for her pro-Palestine stance and activism, labeling it as “terrorism.”

I don’t share New York Times pieces lightly but this is too wild not to share. This woman, Helyeh Doutaghi, an Iranian lawyer, was maligned by a Zionist AI run news site, and began to receive hate messages, and was suspended at a cowardly Yale that caved to the pressure. Unbelievable. Link below.

Solidarity with Helyeh Doutaghi who was fired by Yale Law School for speaking unequivocally for Palestinian liberation. Shame on her Yale colleagues for their silent cowardice and complicity. May you fall with the fascist institution.

🚨Last week Helyeh Doutaghi, a scholar in international law, was barred from Yale and put on administrative leave: ‘The decision came three days after a news site powered by artificial intelligence, published a story calling her a member of a terrorist group.’

www.removepaywall.com/search?url=h...

An important and welcome statement from leaders of the LPE Project on the turn to tyranny and the targeting of scholars who support Palestinian rights, though it is oddly ambivalent about the effective firing of Helyeh Doutaghi

I was expecting something stronger TBH. There's no call to reinstate Helyeh Doutaghi and the statement doesn't actually name Yale.

Fuck this. Solidarity with Helyeh Doutaghi.

Suspended for Pro-Palestine Speech: My statement on Yale Law School’s embrace of AI-generated smears Helyeh Doutaghi was placed on leave by Yale Law School after being falsely accused of “terrorism” over her support for Palestine. She says her case reflects the new era of Zionist McCarthyism and...

Helyeh Doutaghi was placed on leave by Yale Law School after being falsely accused of “terrorism” over her support for Palestine. She says her case reflects the new era of Zionist McCarthyism and that this repression reveals an empire in decline.

We're doing AI generated smear campaigns now Yale University has suspended a law school scholar after an AI-generated news website claimed that she was a member of a terrorist organization

I wrote about Helyeh Doutaghi, a scholar who was suspended by Yale Law School after an Israeli AI-generated news website known for spreading disinfo, claimed that she was a member of a terrorist organization.