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This book traverses three pivotal human rights struggles of the post-September 11th era: the American human rights campaign to challenge the Bush administration's "War on Terror" torture and detention policies, Middle Eastern efforts to challenge American human rights practices (reversing the traditional West to East flow of human rights mobilizations and discourses), and Middle Eastern attempts to challenge their own leaders' human rights violations in light of American interventions. This book presents snapshots of human rights being appropriated, promoted, claimed, reclaimed, and contested within and between the American and Middle Eastern contexts. The inquiry has three facets: first, it explores intersections between human rights norms and power as they unfold in the era. Second, it lays out the layers of the era's American and Middle Eastern encounter on the human rights plane. Finally, it draws out the era's key lessons for moving the human rights project forward.
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This page intentionally left blank AFTER ABU GHRAIB Exploring Human Rights in America and the Middle East This book traverses three pivotal human rights struggles of the post–September 11th era: the American human rights campaign to challenge the Bush administration’s “War on Terror” torture and detention policies, Middle Eastern efforts to challenge American human rights practices (reversing the traditional West to East flow of human rights mobilizations and discourses), and Middle Eastern attempts to challenge their own leaders’ human rights violations in light of American interventions. This book presents snapshots of human rights being appropriated, promoted, claimed, reclaimed, and contested within and between the American and Middle Eastern contexts. The inquiry has three facets: First, it explores intersections between human rights norms and power as they unfold in the era. Second, it lays out the layers of the era’s American and Middle Eastern encounter on the human rights plane. Finally, it draws out the era’s key lessons for moving the human rights project forward. Shadi Mokhtari is an independent scholar and human rights attorney. She currently works with a domestic violence nonprofit organization in the Washington D.C. area and serves as the managing editor of the Muslim World Journal of Human Rights. She holds PhD and LLM degrees from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University; a JD from the University of Texas School of Law; a master’s in international affairs from Columbia University; and a BA from American University. She has taught as an adjunct professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and has contributed chapters to books, including Islamic Law and International Law (“The Iranian Search for Human Rights within an Islamic Framework”) (2007), Islamic Feminism and the Law (“Towards a New Agenda for Islamic Feminism: Clearing the Human Rights Minefield”) (2008), and Migrant Women’s Search for Social Justice (“Migrant Women’s Interests and the Case of Shari’a Tribunals in Ontario”) (2009). In 2006, she was selected as a “new voices” panelist at the American Association of International Law Conference and was awarded honorable mention for the John Peter Humphreys Fellowship from the Canadian Council on International Law. CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN LAW AND SOCIETY Cambridge Studies in Law and Society aims to publish the best scholarly work on legal discourse and practice in its social and institutional contexts, combining theoretical insights and empirical research. The fields that it covers are: studies of law in action; the sociology of law; the anthropology of law; cultural studies of law, including the role of legal discourses in social formations; law and economics; law and politics; and studies of governance. The books consider all forms of legal discourse across societies, rather than being limited to lawyers’ discou