Arabs at Home and in the World: Human Rights, Gender Politics, and Identity

211 Pages·2019·5.038 MB·English

by  Karla McKanders

Arabs at Home and in the World
This volume brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars from the
United States, the Middle East, and North Africa, to discuss and critically ana-
lyze the intersection of gender and human rights laws as applied to individuals
of Arab descent. It seeks to raise consciousness at the intersection of gender,
identity, and human rights as it relates to Arabs at home and throughout the di-
aspora. The context of revolution and the destabilizing impact of armed conflicts
in the region are used to critique and examine the utility of human rights law to
address contemporary human rights issues through extralegal strategies. To this
end, the volume seeks to inform, educate, persuade, and facilitate newer or less-
heard perspectives related to gender and masculinities theories. It will provide
readers with new ways of understanding gender and human rights and proposes
forward-looking solutions to implementing human rights norms.
The goal of this book is to use the context of Arabs at home and throughout
the diaspora to critique and examine the utility of human rights norms and laws
to diminish human suffering with the goal of transforming the structural, so-
cial, and cultural conditions that impede access to human rights. This book will
be of interest to a diverse audience of scholars, students, public policy research-
ers, lawyers, and the educated public interested in the fields of human rights
law, international studies, gender politics, migration and diaspora, and Middle
East politics.
Karla M. McKanders is a Clinical Professor at Vanderbilt University, School of
Law in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
Routledge Research in Human Rights Law
Comparative Executive Clemency
The Prerogative of Mercy in the Commonwealth
Andrew Novak
Social and Economic Rights in Theory and Practice
A Critical Assessment
Helena Alviar Garcia, Karl Klare, and Lucy A. Williams
Challenging Territoriality in Human Rights Law
Building Blocks for a Plural and Diverse Duty-Bearer Regime
Wouter Vandenhole
Care, Migration and Human Rights
Law and Practice
Siobhán Mullally
China’s Human Rights Lawyers
Advocacy and Resistance
Eva Pils
Indigenous Peoples, Title to Territory, Rights and Resources
The Transformative Role of Free Prior and Informed Consent
Cathal M. Doyle
Arabs at Home and in the World
Human Rights, Gender Politics, and Identity
Edited by Karla M. McKanders
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
Routledge-Research-in-Human-Rights-Law/book-series/HUMRIGHTSLAW
Arabs at Home and
in the World
Human Rights, Gender Politics,
and Identity
Edited by
Karla M. McKanders
First published 2019
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2019 selection and editorial matter, Karla M. McKanders; individual
chapters, the contributors
The right of Karla M. McKanders to be identified as the author of the
editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has
been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
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or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
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or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-138-57885-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-26356-6 (ebk)
Typeset in Galliard
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Contents
Foreword vii
Adrien K. Wing
Introduction xi
KArlA M. McKAnders
Acknowledgments xvii
List of contributors xix
Part I
Defining gender and human rights for arabs at home
and throughout the diaspora 1
1 Hegemonic femininity and hijab as a human right 3
louise CAinKAr
2 Palestine’s accession to CEDaW: one step of the
thousand-mile journey 25
MutAz M. QAfisheh
Part II
at home: arab Spring, gender, and human rights 55
3 the sources of public patriarchal authority in Morocco 57
fAtiMA sAdiQi
4 Media representations of Palestinian women:
post-arab Uprisings 91
hAllA shoAibi
vi Contents
Part III
the arab diaspora: gender, human rights,
and migration 109
5 theorizing sexual violence against men in the Middle
East and North african region as gender-related
persecution under refugee and asylum law 111
VAlorie K. VojdiK
6 Gender, Islamophobia, and refugee exceptionalism 126
KArlA M. McKAnders
7 Moroccan women migrants in Europe:
a transformative experience 158
MohA ennAji
Bibliography 179
Index 181
Foreword
Adrien K. Wing
I got involved in the Arab world because of love. It was not love of the region,
an academic subject, or the Arabic language. I did not know anything about
these things. It was love of a man, my then-boyfriend Enrico, that motivated me.
In 1982, he was a brand-new doctor who volunteered to go into a war zone in
Beirut, Lebanon. We were young and in love, and so I went with him. While he
was busy treating patients, I assisted the overworked staff in many areas. While
I was mainly an administrator, I did hands-on work as well. We were very short
of nurses. So one of the tasks I ended up doing was helping out in the burn unit.
Patients had been hit by phosphorous bombs, leading to very nasty burrowing
injuries, including second- and third-degree burns. I will never forget holding
on to a young boy as staff ripped dried gauze from his wounds. He writhed and
screamed in horrific pain, “Mama, mama,” and leaned into me for comfort. On
that day, I became an Arab mother.
I often wonder what happened to that boy, especially since immediately after
Rico and I left the area, a terrible massacre took place right where we had been
working and living—the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps of West
Beirut. Countless men, women, and children were killed, including patients at
our hospital.
My life changed forever as a result of that summer. Partly in memory of those
whose fate I will never know, I was determined to rectify my ignorance and help
educate others. For more than thirty-five years since then, as an international
law professor, I have specialized in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
region, including teaching a course I created entitled “Law in the Muslim
World.” I have conducted research, presented lectures, and authored dozens of
publications. I have led many delegations and visited countries including Egypt,
Israel, Indonesia, jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Qatar, Sudan,
Turkey, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Bosnia, and Kosovo. I have had the
privilege of advising the founding fathers and mothers of three constitutions, in-
cluding one in the MENA area—the Palestinian Basic Law. As a women’s rights
scholar, I have placed a special emphasis on Arab women’s rights. In particular,
as a critical race feminist scholar, I have been most interested in the intersections
of gender, race/ethnicity, discrimination, and human rights focusing on law in
the Muslim world.
viii Foreword
On a personal level, one of my surrogate daughters is a Muslim who wears a
hijab. In particular and in part because of my daughter’s situation confronting
Islamophobia, I have also always been involved in advocating for improving the
treatment of Muslim women within the United States as well.
Given my long-term interests, I attended a relevant panel presentation at the
Law and Society Conference in Mexico City during spring 2017. The event was
entitled The Impact of Gender, Identity, and Human Rights in Times of Conflict
and Revolution for Arabs throughout the Diaspora. The speakers were all nota-
ble scholars in the field of gender and human rights from the MENA as well
as from the United States. They included Mutaz M. Qafisheh (Hebron Uni-
versity); Louise Cainkar (Marquette University); Karla McKanders (Vanderbilt
University); Fatima Sadiqi (University of Fez); Halla Shoaibi (Birzeit University);
Valorie K. Vojdik (University of Tennessee College of Law); and Moha Ennaji
(Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University). In particular, I had known one of
the panelists, Dr. Cainkar, since 1982, and have read and admired her work
throughout her career. The scholars came together in an International Research
Collaborative to explore the impact of conflict upon gender inequalities and the
limitations of, and possibilities for, enforcement of international human rights in
the region and globally. The quality of their collective voices was very impressive.
I was subsequently delighted when the Law and Society Association panel
chair and discussant, Professor Karla McKanders, whom I have known for a
number of years, asked if I would do the foreword to the volume associated
with the panel. As editor, McKanders has produced a highly significant and
timely volume. Globally, we are at a potentially critical moment regarding the
treatment of individuals of Arab descent. Many years past the broken promise
of the Arab Spring, we are mired in the intersection of ongoing armed conflicts,
dictatorial regimes, underemployed frustrated youth, and overwhelming migra-
tions from some Muslim-majority countries. Women remain at the bottom in
all the s ocieties—educationally, economically, politically, legally, and culturally,
while gay men continue to experience discrimination at the intersection of their
religion and nationality in obtaining basic human rights and equality.
This volume utilizes diverse interdisciplinary perspectives of scholars whose
work is grounded as academics with an activist perspective and connection with
their communities of concern. The authors in this volume focus on the intercon-
nections in the research in the following areas: (1) legal strategies to address the
gendered impact of conflict and uprisings throughout the region; (2) the role of
gender in secular and religious interpretations of the law in Islamic contexts in
Morocco; (3) gender and inward and outward migration in the MENA region
focusing on Morocco and the United States; (4) the discriminatory application
of the Refugee Convention against male refugees in conceptualizing persecu-
tion and vulnerability; (5) women’s role in the MENA revolution and gendered
conceptions of justice; and (6) gender, family, and domestic violence laws in
Morocco and Palestine.
The volume is particularly useful in utilizing examples that critique and exam-
ine the utility of human rights law to address contemporary issues through legal
Foreword ix
and extralegal strategies aimed at diminishing human suffering and helping to
transform the structural, social, and cultural conditions that impede women’s
access to human rights. Each chapter is focused on examining the challenges
in utilizing international law and human rights to advance human rights in the
MENA region. The volume engages in activist- and solution-oriented discus-
sion, which seeks to not only describe and analyze but also contemplate how
systemic change in conflict and postconflict systems can protect and promote
gender and human rights.
This anthology makes a powerful contribution to existing literature in several
fields. It is wonderful for those who are like I was thirty-five years ago, lacking
any knowledge of the issues in the MENA region. It is equally useful for those
wanting more specialized information.