Valarie Kaur, Dynamic Leader Using the Power of Media for Social Change

We had the honor of co-hosting Valarie Kaur with the Multicultural Center, OSU Hillel, Mundo, OSU First Year Experience, the Office of Student Life, Asian American Association, Better Together, Indian Student Association, and the South Asian Student Association.

Twelve years ago,  in the wake of September 11, 2001, Kaur set off across the country to discover the stories of those affected by this post-9/11 anger and hatred toward what Mahmoud has called "Muslim-looking others".  Since September 11th Sikhs, who often wear turbans as a part of religious observance, have been targets of related hate crimes.  The months on the road with her cousin, recording and filming these stories, shone light on the effects of hate and ignorance in a time where unity in the United States was being preached from the rooftops. As this post is coming from a center focused on the Middle East, it is important to note that Sikhs originate in South Asia, not the Middle East. However, in teaching about the Middle East, and its diversity, we also teach about the groups outside of the Middle East to help make distinctions.

Kaur´s dedication and passion for social change have affected the course of her own life, and the lives of everyone she meets.  She is a powerful activist for multifaith movements, promoting social change through legal avenues, and advocate for the Sikh community. One legal victory she highlighted is that the Justice Department now includes Sikh's as a demographic group, allowing tracking of crimes against members of the community.

On November 14, 2013 Kaur ran a storytelling for social change workshop, and held conversations with students about her films: Divided We Fall, and a short documentary on the shooting at a Sikh Gurdwara in Oak Creek Wisconsin (View: here). We screened "Divided We Fall" at the Ohio Union.  Her storytelling for change workshop was an meaningful time for the 20 participants to reflect on social injustices in the United States.  Through dialogue about personal experiences they developed ideas for how their stories could make an impact for social change.

Kaur´s time at Ohio State was highly influential.  Close to 200 students were at the screening and many used Twitter to thank her for her work and help heighten awareness.  For example: "Tonight I had the honor of meeting @valariekaur and watching her documentary "Divided We Fall." What an incredible, life changing experience" and "Just finished watching "Divided We Fall" that @valariekaur produced, heartbroken at how little things have changed since it was filmed." The Middle East Studies Center gained from this experience in ways which will bolster our outreach methods with media and story, and raise awareness of the importance of reducing discrimination against the "Muslim-looking-other" and indeed to work against othering in general for a U.S. society that embraces diversity within unity.  

Dateline Kabul: The Quest to Give Afghan Women a Voice

On Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - from 1:00pm - 2:00pm we had the pleasure of listening to Amie Ferris-Rotman, reporter for Reuters, share her experiences living and working in Afghanistan.  Since December 2011, as senior correspondent for Reuters in Afghanistan, she has focused on the struggles women face eleven years into the NATO-led war. She scooped the story of a woman’s public execution near Kabul, which sparked global outcry.  We gained insights on the true plight many women there are currently facing.  Further the subject of violence against women is a critical global issue, which takes shape in numerous ugly forms in every country.  

Presenting the perspective that the country has undergone 34 years of incessant war, she emphasized the courage of the women she knew there and the women whose stories she covered, rather than their victimhood.  In particular she shared the story of Muzhgan Masoomi who was brutally attacked by her cousin.  He claimed that she shouldn't be working, and continually harassed her until finally attacking her and leaving her for dead.  Fortunately now, according to her parents, he is in jail for this crime.  However, her debilitating injuries now prevent her from continuing in her former government job.  Her father wept as he told Amie the story.  It was he who insisted she get an education and he made many sacrifices to support her in her work toward her degree in accounting.  

The underlying issue of security, or the utter lack of security, was a theme in the discussion we had after Ms. Ferris Rotman's talk about four different Afghan women she's known or covered, from very different walks of life.  The Director of the Middle East Studies Center, Dr. Alam Payind, commented that none of his sisters donned the veil until the Soviets invaded, as there was a sense that women were no longer safe on the streets.  It seems that 34 years later what began with reasonable fears has escalated into a circumstance in which no remembers the time when women were not only safe on the streets, but free to come and go as they pleased.  Amie noted that men and women of Dr. Payind's generation have a certain grief due to their memory of how it used to be. One of the women she mentioned is a former police officer who is of the same generation.  She is an outgoing, confident women who sometimes boasts about the numerous men she put in jail for committing violence against women.  

This event was co-sponsored by The Mershon Center for International Security Studies, the School of Communication, The Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, The Women's Place and the Middle East Studies Center

Defusing Human Bombs, film screening

Sabaoon ("first morning light" in Pashto) is a rehabilitation school particularly for adolsecent boys who had been recruited by militant groups, often as suicide bombers. Most have received training in Swat Valley from the Taliban who teach that their interpretation of Islam is the only correct one. This documentary focuses on what Sabaoon is doing to reprogram their thinking, and reintegrate them into mainstream Pakistani society. This is very important as the militarization of boys in this way results in thousands of deaths across in Pakistan every year.

Forced to do hard labor, and subjected to beatings, the Taliban's "training" is brutal. They are also given "suicide jackets", and told they will be given heaven by waging war against infidels.

The school creates psychological "profiles" for each child. They consider them children so they don't punish them. They try to build trust instead. Some are considered "high risk" or potentially violent. But they are not kept separate from the others. The goal is to reintegrate them back into society.

They don't try to make them feel guilty. "Shame is a good thing, guilt is not." the head psychologist states. The film then shows a confession of a boy telling the story of how he was made to whip a girl.

"Madam [to the head psychologist], we are here because of terrorism." one of the boys said when asked why he thought he had be enrolled in the program. 

Only 11 had been reintegrated into mainstream Pakistani society when the filming of the documentary commenced, but by the end of the film 21 graduated and thus began their process of reintegration. Obviously, the outcomes are as of yet unsure.

Professor Yussef Yacoubi, who gave background information and conducted Q&A, pointed out that, in addition to the trauma the Taliban inflicted, there are national traumas to overcome: postcolonial trauma, the trauma of partition, and subsequent trauma from the elites' inability to govern with justice. Will the rehabilitation affect trauma at the national level? some students asked. He pointed out the way that the Taliban used, not only physical tactics, but mental ones. Their religious teachings were actually a form of indoctrination, which negates one's ability to question and eventually even to think about what is being taught. Indoctrination can be political, cultural, not just religious as in this case.

The students who went to the film screening wondered what happens next. The documentary doesn't provide much information on that. One student commented that as soon as they go back to society they will be subject to the same trauma that originally made them vulnerable to Taliban indoctrination.

Chocolate in Heat, Stage Reading of the play by Betty Shamieh

The OSU Theatre Department brought an excellent stage reading of Betty Shamieh's "Chocolate in Heat" to campus last night and the night before. Produced by the "Lab Series, A Department-Nurtured, Student-Driven Production Series." We are very fortunate to have such a program, and especially fortunate that two of the finest actors in Egypt happen to be in Columbus and could play the main roles. Amany Seleem, Ph.D. Candidate in the Department, and her husband, Assem Ngaty, Ph.D, performed multiple roles powerfully. The play was directed by Allison Brogan. If you haven't had a chance to check her plays out, they are quite worth it, and her intellectual output as a whole.

This play demonstrated the way (one of the ways) Middle Eastern, in this case Arab, Americans stay very close to their home countries. In particular, the way knowledge of history and current politics can play a role in their everyday lives. Of course, this comes with a whole range of emotions and connections to individual lives, an aspect which was portrayed incredibly well in the way multiple interlocking stories unfolded. The script lent itself well to a reading as it uses monologues to describe each facet of the story. Bravo!

Middle Eastern American Identities

We were honored to bring together scholars, students and educators on Wednesday to discuss Middle Eastern American identities. Dr. Mehdi Bozorghmehr spoke first about the unique challenges of representation that Middle Easterners face in post-9/11 America, and specifically the ways in which the diversity of this heterogeneous group is overlooked. The intense focus on the raging conflicts in the Middle East in American popular culture reinforces existing negative stereotypes, further concealing the diversity of this panethnic group. It is very difficult for these ethnic minorities to overcome such challenges and advocate for their interests, partly because Middle Eastern groups are not recognized as official minorities. For instance, governmental forms (e.g., the U.S. Census and those pertaining to affirmative action) subsume Middle Easterners under the White racial category and hence contribute to their invisibility and inability to combat discrimination.

Jonathan Friedlander expanded on the topic of diversity versus the monolithic image of Middle Easterners held in the collective imagination of American society. He talked about Middle Eastern identities "from A to Z" (Arab to Zoroastrian). While there is a sizeable population of individuals of Middle Eastern origin in the U.S., the group is more diverse here due to migrant selectivity (e.g., religious minorities from the Middle East are overrepresented in America). So, as we study the Middle East, it is important to remember that many Middle Eastern individuals we meet in the U.S. will not fit the expectation of what the Middle East tends to be (i.e., Arab and Muslim). For example, about half of Middle Eastern Americans are non-Arabs, and a large segment is also non-Muslim (Christian, Jewish, etc.).

We take this opportunity to thank our partner, Kenyon College, and all of the OSU sponsoring departments who helped make this and related events possible. They include the Mershon Center for International Security Studies; the Department of History; the Center for African Studies; the Undergraduate International Studies Program; the Department of African and African American Studies; and the Multicultural Center.

The guest scholars were interviewed on "All Sides" with Ann Fisher while they were here.  Please check it out! Here is a link to the recording from the "All Sides" page: http://streaming.osu.edu/wosu/allsides/091912a.mp3 We will be posting the video of their presentation, as well as other related materials in our Knowledge Bank Community. 

Indonesian ambassador to the U.S., Dino Patti Djalal, May 24 2012

The ambassador described a new mentality that is forming, an optimism stimulated because success is now being seen as home grown. In past success had a strong connection to names like Henry Ford, Colonal Sanders, and Bill Gates. . ."now success can have our faces and our names as well. " noted the ambassador.

According to him, it's not military success but corporate success that matters most in global relations. In past Indonesia had strong movements against colonialism and the related capitalist economic structures, which has been a hinderance. 21st have to believe in markets, so now people replace the word capitalism with "entrepreneurship" and it works, lots of enthusiasm.

Indonesia is the 3rd largest democracy in the world with the largest middle class in Asia. This is quite surprising from point of view of 1999, after economic crash. 85% of Indonesians believe in their democratic system and that their economy is good, disagreements with particular policies or election choices notwithstanding.

He warned, however, that it's possible to become stuck with a middle income level, inertia prevents high GDP status. There are lessons from the US's economic growth during the fifty years Fter WWII.

This event was brought to the Ohio State University thanks to The College of Education and Human Ecology and PERMIAS, the Indonesian Student Association.

Marwan Muasher (Saturday, April 21 2012)

Dr. Muasher  is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment. He served as foreign minister (2002–04) and deputy prime minister (2004–05) of Jordan, and his career has spanned the areas of diplomacy, development, civil society, and communications. He is also a senior fellow at Yale University.

Muasher began his career as a journalist for the Jordan Times. He then served at the Ministry of Planning, at the prime minister’s office as press adviser, and as director of the Jordan Information Bureau in Washington.

In 1995, Muasher opened Jordan's first embassy in Israel, and in 1996 became minister of information and the government spokesperson. From 1997 to 2002, he served in Washington again as ambassador, negotiating the first free trade agreement between the United States and an Arab nation. He then returned to Jordan to serve as foreign minister, where he played a central role in developing the Arab Peace Initiative and the Middle East Road Map.

In 2004 he became deputy prime minister responsible for reform and government performance, and led the effort to produce a 10-year plan for political, economic, and social reform. From 2006 to 2007, he was a member of the Jordanian Senate.

Most recently, he was senior vice president of external affairs at the World Bank from 2007 to 2010.

He is the author of The Arab Center: The Promise of Moderation (Yale University Press, 2008).

He spoke about "The Arab Awakening: One Year On" at the Ohio State University, Saturday, April 21 2012 - The event was co-sponsored by The Mershon Center for International Security Studies, The Middle East Studies Center, The Department of History, the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, and The Alumni of the American University in Beirut. 

The major themes he spoke about were:

• The current process of seeking democratic government is not a battle between secularists and Islamists.  It's a struggle for pluralism that needs to come from both sides.    
• There is a new awareness of the strength of organized political action. Further, it is an irreversible process, even if it is a problematic one.
• With education and pluralism jobs can be created and representational government will be possible.   

Long-range perspective on some of the key challenges:

• The electoral process is not moving forward quickly due to a multiplication of parties.  However,
• After Franco 161 parties competed in the elections, now there are less than 10. It's a natural progression.
• There are underrepresented groups.  Equality of education that emphasizes critical thinking and democratic values. He said: "A citizen should be concerned about the rights of all his fellow citizens. 
• Economic problems, such as a lack of jobs, prevent progress.  The only way to create enough jobs will be created is if human capital is increased through education.    
• Islamists have 15% of actual popular support despite garnering 34% of the electoral support.  This is because they haven't yet been in power so they haven't been tested. Muasher predicts they won't do as well in the future. 

This talk was organized by the Ohio Valley Chapter of the Alumni Association of the American University of Beirut, and co-sponsored with the Mershon Center, the Department of History, and the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures.