The War on Terror Through the Eyes of Queer Afghan Refugees

The article introduces No God But Us, a debut novel by Bobuq Sayed, as a companion to Jose Esteban Muñoz’s The Sense of Brown (2020) for reflecting on the last 25 years of the U.S.

War on Terror.

The novel tells the alternating first-person stories of two queer Afghan refugees, Delbar and Mansur, whose lives are disrupted by the war.

The War on Terror began on September 14, 2001, with the Authorization for Use of Military Force signed by George W.

Bush and approved by all but one member of the U.S.

House of Representatives.

The war has resulted in an estimated 4.5 million deaths, including 1 million from direct combat in countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq, and 3.5 million from indirect causes such as economic destruction.

Additionally, 37 million people have been displaced as refugees.