Ten years after September 11th, human rights flounder in the United States but flourish in the Middle East.

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 …

Meet Iranian Singles

Iranian Singles

Recipient Of The Serena Shim Award

Serena Shim Award
Meet your Persian Love Today!
Meet your Persian Love Today!