Hope and Despair
Description
The current condition of the world--brutal wars, extrajudicial killings, genocide--has its roots, Monia Mazigh argues, in the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York. A new world was ushered in, when governments openly violated international law in their "war on terror." In particular, Muslims of various countries were abducted on mere suspicion or whim by America and its collaborating allies and detained to face tortures in so-called secret black sites. Torture was justified by politicians and intellectuals, it was no longer a medieval practice carried out in "backward" countries but an interrogation norm in the West. Monia Mazigh's husband, Maher Arar, was one innocent citizen who was abducted and shipped to a dungeon in Syria and tortured. Mazigh describes her own and her family's ordeal of several years in trying to get Maher Arar finally released.
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Persons
Monia Mazigh is an award-winning Canadian author and human rights activist. She is an Adjunct and research Professor at Carleton University at the Department of English and Literature. She writes in French and English and has authored a memoir, three novels, and a collection of short stories. Her latest novel, Farida won the Ottawa Book Award for French fiction. Gendered Islamophobia: My Journey with a Scar(f) was a finalist for the Governor General Literary Award for Non-fiction in 2023.
Mazigh was a columnist with ONFr+ and Radio-Canada. She has published several articles with the Ottawa Citizen, the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star. She was recently recognized as an honouree of "Distinguished Women of Ottawa" in the category of Lifetime Contribution for her involvement in her community, and she has also received the King Charles Coronation medal for her work in human rights.