Since September 11th, the United States and the Arab world have traveled
a treacherous road together. Where they have arrived after ten years
sets them apart. In the US, the embrace of human rights as a defining
value and ideal worthy of considerable sacrifice is gradually fading,
while the Arab world is in the midst of a rights revolution.
Throughout
US history, promoting individual rights and civil liberties has been
central to how Americans defined themselves. To be American was to
champion liberty and rights. These were repeatedly billed as inherently
American values. Even when they encountered contradictions such as US
support for brutal dictators, Americans' faith that more often than not
the United States used its power to promote its principles allowed many
Americans to continue to take pride in their "America as leader of the
free world" identity. In this formulation, human rights, ideals, and
morality mattered, at the very least as a bar that should be met.
But
the United States' treatment of human rights after September 11th
proved hard to reconcile with its "purveyor of rights" identity. Abu
Ghraib's gripping images, Guantanamo's indefinite detentions without due
process, the outsourcing of torture to "partner" countries through
renditions, CIA blacksites where Americans themselves took up torture
and ... >>>
Person | About | Day |
---|---|---|
نسرین ستوده: زندانی روز | Dec 04 | |
Saeed Malekpour: Prisoner of the day | Lawyer says death sentence suspended | Dec 03 |
Majid Tavakoli: Prisoner of the day | Iterview with mother | Dec 02 |
احسان نراقی: جامعه شناس و نویسنده ۱۳۰۵-۱۳۹۱ | Dec 02 | |
Nasrin Sotoudeh: Prisoner of the day | 46 days on hunger strike | Dec 01 |
Nasrin Sotoudeh: Graffiti | In Barcelona | Nov 30 |
گوهر عشقی: مادر ستار بهشتی | Nov 30 | |
Abdollah Momeni: Prisoner of the day | Activist denied leave and family visits for 1.5 years | Nov 30 |
محمد کلالی: یکی از حمله کنندگان به سفارت ایران در برلین | Nov 29 | |
Habibollah Golparipour: Prisoner of the day | Kurdish Activist on Death Row | Nov 28 |